Mathias Grassow is a German

ambient Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film * ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...

musician whose recordings can also be classified in the genres of

dark ambient Dark ambient (referred to as ambient industrial especially in the 1980s) is a genre of post-industrial musicReed, Alexander: ''Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music'', Oxford University Press, 2013, , p. 190 that features an ominous, ...

and drone ambient. His music often has a meditative and emotional and spiritual context, which induces deep feelings of

introspection Introspection is the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies on the observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one's s ...

in listeners. Over his long career, he has collaborated extensively with other notable

composers such as

Klaus Wiese Klaus Wiese (January 18, 1942 – January 27, 2009 in Ulm) was a veteran e-musician, minimalist, and multi-instrumentalist. A master of the Tibetan singing bowl, he created an extensive series of album releases using them. Wiese also used the hum ...

Oöphoi Gianluigi Gasparetti (26 March 1958 – 12 April 2013), known by the pseudonym Oöphoi, was an Italian ambient musician. He is perhaps best known for his role as the editor of ''Deep Listenings'', an Italian magazine dedicated to ambient and ...

, Alio Die, and Tomas Weiss.

Origins

Mathias Grassow played

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

and

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

in the 1970s and moved on to keyboards in the early 1980s. Later, he became interested in keyboards and electronic

synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s. He had an interest in

Alan Watts Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British and American writer, speaker, and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Buddhist, Taoist, and Hinduism, Hindu philosophy for a Wes ...

books and

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

. His interests progressed over from

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

and to the mystical side of Christianity. He became interested in overtone and subharmonic chants, long deep synthesizer drones, and in Indian classical music. Later he was influenced by the

singing bowl A standing bell or resting bell is an inverted bell, supported from below with the rim uppermost. Such bells are normally bowl-shaped, and exist in a wide range of sizes, from a few centimetres to a metre in diameter. They are often played by st ...

sound recordings of

Discography

Notable albums include the following:Mathias Grassow discography
/ref> * 1991, Prophecy * 1993, In Search Of Sanity * 1997, Namakar * 1998, Elixir * 1998, Himavat * 1999, Dissolution * 1999, Himalaya * 2000, Cosmic Chasm * 2000, The Fragrance Of Eternal Roses * 2006, Dronament * 2006, Opus Posthumum * 2007, Deeper Purity * 2009, Calibration

Notes

External links

Mathias Grassow official Web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grassow, Mathias Living people German ambient musicians Dark ambient musicians German male musicians Year of birth missing (living people)