On Friday, March 4th, Reed Mathis’ Electric Beethoven will release "The Path," the third digital single off of a monthly series leading up to the release of his double LP Hear No Evil coming out August 4, 2022.
Mathis vividly recalls being haunted by a scene in the film ‘Immortal Beloved’ where Gary Oldman portrays Beethoven sitting at a piano playing a quiet, loss of innocence melody as he comes to terms with experiencing hearing loss. The melody played is the second movement of Piano Sonata No.8 best known as “Pathétique,” one of Mathis’ personal favorite melodies in Beethoven’s vast repertoire. “The Path” by Electric Beethoven uses “Pathétique” as their muse as Mathis envisions a present-times scenario of the 1994 scene reimagined. The modern instrumentation and driving beat set the stage for feelings of hope and redemption that are pristinely mixed by Rob Eaton, guitarist of Dark Star Orchestra who has also produced several albums for the iconic jazz guitarist, Pat Metheny.
"I remember picking the melody out by ear on the piano before ever looking at the actual score," Mathis recalls upon first hearing "Pathétique," "It's one of my favorite melodies in all of Beethoven's repertoire. Our version takes it out to a country church, the organ reverberating out across the lake, frogs chirping, sun settling."
You can watch Mathis breakdown recording the "soprano" part on bass and get insight into his arranging process by viewing the video here.
The release of "The Path" comes ahead of a recently-announced string of northern California Electronic Beethoven duo dates where Mathis will perform alongside his former Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey bandmate, Brian Hass. The duo shows are as follows:
March 10: Crazy Horse - Nevada City, CA
March 11: Moe's Alley - Santa Cruz, CA
March 12: Boom Boom Room - San Francisco, CA
Hear No Evil will contain a multitude of unreleased tracks with fellow Color Red collaborators and an entire remix series of electronically produced reconfigurations of the group’s works by esteemed producers on today’s circuit.
For more information and to learn more, visit electricbeethoven.com and color-red.com
