Syd Matters

You have to imagine Syd Matters alone in his flat with the dawn fingering at his window. He hasn’t talked to anyone for a week and the hours and days are gradually slipping by him. One by one, childhood memories come back, sometimes they clash. He composes crystal-clear tunes on his guitar, the din of the world is far away and he listens to the music inside of him. And when day comes, the song is suddenly there. Syd experiences a strange sense of joy, feels incredibly present and at the same time as if he was floating. These are his “Ghost Days”, as he puts it. They provide the title of his third album – which also happens to be his most beautiful one to date. It’s not that Syd’s been idle up until now. The Parisian Jonathan Morali, alias Syd Matters, came from nowhere to make a big impression at the first Les Inrockuptibles QED awards – he was only 22 at the time – and his two spellbinding albums have since won over both critics and the general public. The first was “A Whisper And A Sigh” (2003), riding on the back of the space-folk hit “Black & White Eyes”. Then came “Someday We Will Foresee Obstacles” (2005) which was enhanced by large-scale, enthralling, Pink Floyd-style concerts – it’s worth mentioning that Jonathan had by this time surrounded himself with four musicians in his own vein, Olivier, Jean-Yves, Clément and Rémi, who bring a new dimension to Syd Matters. He was also much talked about this autumn with the release of the film “Heartbeat Detector”, for which he composed the soundtrack. He now says that this was a decisive experience for him, one that helped him grow.