WHO\\WHAT\\WHERE
Matthew Cha is a Washington DC-based saxophonist, singer, composer and producer from Seoul, Korea. Previously releasing music as DISQO VOLANTE, his music has been described as a cross of Prince, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Frank Zappa. Cha describes his music as technojazz.
STYLE\\INFLUENCES
His music fuses a background in jazz + a love affair with techno + an astute awareness of post-internet aesthetic. Cha’s unique style, centered around his live saxophone and modular synthesizer, incorporates extended explorations of spontaneity + cognition, minimalism and techno, with a careful ear towards modern Asian flair.
MUSIC
out there - 2020
VIDEO
A.I. Love U\\Live Performance
Land Of The Free\\Live Cut
Impurities - 2019
Decibel Collective DC\\Live Performance
out there: Oh my god\\collaborative audio-visual project with Johns Hopkins SoN
LIVE
PERFORMANCE RÉSUMÉ
Matthew Cha is a member of DC’s Decibel Collective, and has made appearances at DC's Catharsis On The Mall festival, The Anthem, U Street Music Hall, Flash, 9:30 Club Backbar, El Techo, Velvet Lounge, Wonderland Ballroom, and Dew Drop Inn.
His 2019 performance at Brooklyn’s MIRROR featured avant-garde jazz bassist Fumio Tashiro and live visual art by Miho Morita.
Previously based in Carrboro, NC, he has performed in Chapel Hill’s Cat’s Cradle, Memorial Hall, Local 506, The Cave, The Station, Nightlight, and Northside District, Durham’s Slingshot Festival, Sometimes, The Fruit, Monkey Bottom, Raleigh’s Pour House Music Hall, Slims, and The Maywood, and Winston-Salem’s Monstercade.
Overseas, he has performed in Hong Kong’s Oma, Shanghai’s MAO Livehouse, M.E. Electronic Studio, Wooden Box, and Basement6, Tokyo’s Bullet’s, and Seoul’s G-15 Sonnendeck.
As a supporting act, he has performed shows with Machìna, Tokimonsta, Marc Rebillet, Yung Bae, Marcel Fengler, and Tapefeed.
LOCAL\\INTERNATIONAL
Matthew Cha’s live performances capture the energy of the diverse DC community, and temper it with sounds, colours, and ideas from his multicultural background and passionate interest in contemporary and historical experimental musics. Trained as a jazz saxophonist, he aims to compose pieces that celebrate the storytelling capability of long-format compositions, but remain accessible with an updated improvisational paradigm and use of new music technology.
A hi-output aficionado, Cha has refurbished and deployed two vintage club PA systems in venues in Washington DC and Durham NC, and in 2022 joined Durham’s Slingshot Festival team as a sound system specialist.
He has toured Hong Kong, China, Japan, and Korea in support of his 2016 and 2018 releases, and performs regularly in Untied States. Most recently, Cha spent several weeks in Korea working on collaborative projects with Seoul’s OddSong, Love X Stereo, and UZA.
Since then, he has headed the fully independent record label Eklektik Elektrik.
PRESS
“It’s safe to say that no one in the city is making music quite like Cha.”
“He has been spreading his signature innovative ‘technojazz’ sound across DC to great success and is a sight to behold live.”
“re: lit is unlike any kind of electronic music I’ve heard before.”
“A fascinating mix of East meets West over synths and sax, DISQO VOLANTE exhibits a highly unusual and unique sound.”
