Written and recorded in 2004, this piece was my very first composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, under Dr Richard Baker. Faye Louise Aldrich is the performer in this workshop recording.

Nothing Implied (2006) Performance Instructions: Each players part compromises 6 groups of text, taken from various UK newspapers on 4 days during August 2006 (the period traditionally known as the ‘silly season’). the stories were chosen for their lurid, harrowing or humorous content. Alongside the text is a diagrammatic score, indicating the length of the 6 sections of the piece, punctuated by silence, and some instructions to the players for the selection of their pitch material. The total range of each instrument is divided into three registers: ‘low’, ‘medium’ and high. Within each register the players are free to choose any pitches according to the number specified in the score for each section of the piece (e.g. violin I in section one chooses any five pitches in the high register. Viola in section two chooses any six pitches from all registers, etc). the players may if they prefer fix the pitches during rehearsal and blank staves are included in the performance material for this purpose. The chosen pitches are then used to ‘chant’ the texts for each section, in a free speech rhythm. Only single notes are to be chosen i.e. no double stops. Each performer is then to invest their (purely instrumental) chanting with as much or as little theatricality as they wish. However, the dynamics of the piece will never rise above a general level of p possible, owing to the use of practise mutes. Within each section, each player is free to choose as many or as few of the texts as they wish, and to determine the order in which they are performed. Stopwatches are used to coordinate the start of the sections, but the players do not necessarily have to start playing immediately. They may wait, but for no longer than 5” at the start of each section. At the end of each section, the players should simply finish the sentence that they are chanting, and wait for the start of the next section. Players should not deliberately aim to finish a sentence within the allotted time.

Lecture on Chopin was written in 2008, is 40 minutes long and so far has only been performed in a 20 minute version by: Yshani Perinpanayagam-piano Mikhail Karikis-speaker Neil Luck and Debbie Sargent-page turners. This recording is a 5 minute extract of from the beginning of the piece.

music: Nothing Implied/string quartet Who are you and what are you doing here/choir

The Nothing and the Nothingness - A Happening by Matthew Lee Knowles presented at the Louise T Blouin Institute Tuesday 29th April 2008 7-10pm www.myspace.com/nothingness_happening All kinds of performers come together for an evening of exploration into nothingness at the Louise T Blouin institute in Notting Hill. They will present to visitors a wide range of aural and visual impressions about the subject of nothingness in art, music, philosophy and literature. Performers include - Performers/contributors include: Jeremy Beardmore & The Tropical Noir, John Callaghan, Shyama Persaud, Halal Kebab Hut – algorithmic junkestra, Simon Katan, Catalina Niculescu, Neil Luck, John Lely, Tim Parkinson, Adam Delacour, Rowyda Amin, Lily Barson, Shola Reynolds, Peter Cave, Jon Clay, Vanessa Lanch, Claudia Molitor, Jo Thomas, Giorgio Sadotti, Micachu and the shapes, Blood Moon, Richard Thomas, Colin Alexander, Daniel Davies, Cecilia Wee, Rupert Cross, Michelle Byrne, Elen Le Foll, Alan Fielden, Mikhail Karikis, Paul Newland and David Arrowsmith, Andreas Borregaard, Sonia Hendy-Isaac, Laurence Crane, Ciara O’Connor, Joanna Sleight, Sam Belinfante, Satako Doi, Owen Duff, Emily kenway, Saito Masumi, Jordan Hunt, Grace Nyandoro, Antonio Jesús de la Fe Guides +Riccardo Buscarini, Antoine Francoise, Vlad Mastorovici, Corentin Chassard, Harry Cameron-Penny, Tony Thatcher, Drew Cyster, Ashley Long, Alicia Cubells, JonnyFox, Harriet Wheeler, Alison Rosser, Ekca Liena, Jutta Bannerman, Vicki Princewell, michael olabode, Coryan Wilson-Shah, Priyal Kanabar, Madaleine Trigg, Joshua Kaye, Leena Akhtar, Cristina Miguel Mullen, Ella Jarman-Pinto, Stuart Russell, Lisa Ellis, Hannah long, Ed Nesbitt, JT, Elizabeth Harris, Stewart Keith, Charlie Atkinson, Roberta Edwards, Jenny Glithero, Juancho Gonzarles, Shabsi, Tom Kirk, Zoe Walker, Maria (Em) Smedstad, Sarah Drake, Iana Ianakieva, Bruno, Junior, Analgesia Collective, Laura Goldberg, Tanya, Oliver Zarandi, Sarah Moule, Gynogyi Salla, Larry Caveney, Paul Burnell and Conall Gleeson Music: several edited/layered improvisations by Matthew Lee Knowles, Rick Simpson, Charlie Laffer, Tommy Andrews and Alex Harris

six_events took place over 6 days in January. these are photos taken by Sarah Drake, Matthew Lee Knowles and many others from nearly 30 countries across the world, where six_events was performed. www.myspace.com/six_events more six_events videos at: www.youtube.com/matthewleeknowles January 2010 will see a brand new project: sixty_six_events ...watch this space Music by Matthew Lee Knowles

AROUND THIS HOUSE - HAPPENING IN THE LIBRARY SHOREDITCH LIBRARY THURSDAY 16TH JULY 2009 6:30 - 7:30PM

[NB, this piece uses extremely strong language, violent and sexual imagery throughout - if you are easily offended please do not watch.] The Story of a Magnificent Banquet (2008) by Matthew Lee Knowles performed by: Joshua Kaye (speaker) Matthew Lee Knowles (piano) recorded, Guildhall School of Music and Drama 2008 first performed at Cafe Oto (curated by Mikhail Karikis) 10th September 2008 Neil Luck (speaker) Matthew Lee Knowles (harpsichord) also performed at the Guildhall New Music Festival October 2008 Joshua Kaye (speaker) Laonikos (piano) This piece uses text by the Marquis De Sade, specifically "120 Days Of Sodom", written in 1785 (or "The Romance of the School of Libertinage") the latter part of which is divided into 4 parts, each detailing 150 passions (simple, complex, criminal, murderous) the piece is therefore is 4 sections, opening up De Sade's text, giving slightly more detail, identity and meaning in each section.

This is Fluxus (2008) for speaker and piano first performed at the Guildhall New Music Festival 2008, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London by Ella Jarman Pinto (speaker) and Yshani Perinpanayagam (piano) in this video: Ella Jarman Pinto (speaker) Matthew Lee Knowles (piano) The text was created by walking around the Tate Modern during its Long Weekend, about Fluxus, with many performances and events. I walked around the entire building for hours, writing down snippets of conversations onto postcards. I got home and pieced them together to make this text. The fast speaking was inspired by Samuel Beckett's "Not I" amazingly performed by Billy Whitelaw, and I have employed this method in another recent piece "The Story of a Magnificent Banquet" based on the Marquis de Sade's "120 days of Sodom" first performed by Neil Luck (speaker) and Matthew Lee Knowles (harpsichord) at Cafe oto, Dalston, in September

However, even lovers listen openly. Jokers often shunt husbands in a malicious, monstrous attempt, killing intentional noise, grating. You occasionally undermine any portion in every castle ever obtained faithfully. Why rummage in tears? Instead, negate God. Fear obsolete radars, you oratorio unification. Twice on Sunday parties engineered a kindred. Pissing infinite everything controls ears not owned when ... Taken hurriedly, evermore beguiling exclusively, gaily in nothingness, nowhere inventively, not going and not denying the horror evermore. Each note, discusses openly, fantastic traitors hushing entrails. Fists of unifying rays transplant Homer's stories, electrifying constantly, tediously, inserting orphans nowhere. Tinted, harrowing around tasty sweets, operating veraciously entertaining repetition, not only when he expects rapidity . Everything instigates suspicion, talking haphazard English. Prometheus arranged rapture telling women "here in China, heavenly fanfares orate licentious liturgies." Only women surrender faster. Only our race Opulent vapour, ever resplendent, narrow on windows, turbulently ovulating, trying hard, enveloping paradise and reassuring triumph , wisdom, heroics indefinitely. Cruel hearts follow in their spirit, impartially. Now, bridges echo towns waving. Evil eminent nobody's fracture in Venus, Earth and Neptune. Dante's seventh entertains vile entities ... narrate. Satisfying every vault, every North trance hotel. In November satisfaction turns asexual, lamenting, mourning even necrophilia. Twice in September, no-one owns women, actually reality exercises a legal injunction towards you. Enter, insert, grind, hurt, tear, howl. See, escape, catch, taste, inside, own, nemesis. Wondering, how, one, kind. Narrates our whistling sounds. How one wants more and never yearns malignantly. Open, realised - except traitors. How? Ears remember each willing inch. Leave, lament, back ... express? Tend, hammer each next if, neither table hanging sheep ebbing cure thank in or noting possible erstwhile retelling handicaps about plain sliding toward hammocks. Experimentation plants, endings not unaware, leaving time immaterial mostly archaic then extinguished. Offering narcissism eventually, mummifying everyone, annihilating newborns, infiltrating neighbours, gratifying thunderous horror, evaporating ruling, ending will, instigating lost love. Beginning, ending. Try ending now. Trials, enter naughty, testify husbands. Asexual, nought, drab. Latitude acting surreptitiously, teasing. Courteous occasions, marriage, prison and retributions - traps meaning evenings need trust only fathers meander - your young ones, understand reality's Soporific tracks. Reality under construction, tends (ultimately) rendered empty. Matthew Lee Knowles July/August 2008 Eindhoven/London

"I always thought I'd like his sculpture in my garden" -for six persons (A-F) Programme note "A beautiful melody on the viola, turns to a beautiful duet with the double bass. The instruments often come together, as the projections behind them turn to hatred and war. The other instruments provide subtle accompaniment, with combinations of pitches which are often life changing for the listener, whose role is to absorb the beautiful sound." first performance at the Sonic Arts Network, Brighton, 5th July, the Basement. http://expofestival.org/?page_id=14 Written for and performed by ARCO collective. http://www.myspace.com/arcocollective