mata

Album Release January 2024!

Debut Album: VIJF

Five voices, five songs, five languages and five emotions: this is what the first EP of the young a cappella group mata is all about. It is thus no surprise that the five singers chose ‚VIJF‘ (Dutch for 'five') as the title for this project, a project that they have been planning almost ever since the group was founded five (yes, five again) years ago in Maastricht (Netherlands).

Having released a few first singles and music videos in the past years, the EP constitutes the next logical and exciting step for the members of mata (Amelie Jost, Ariane Baur, Lorena Dürnholz, Marie Weis and Tabea Koloska). The singers have all studied jazz vocals at Conservatorium Maastricht, which is also where they got to know each other and discovered their shared passion for a cappella singing. Over the years, the group has developed its very own and unique mata sound: precise yet playful, sometimes melancholic and sometimes groovy, and marked by influences from both jazz and classical music. Through their imaginative compositions and arrangements in English, German, French, Dutch or even in fantasy languages, the five singers translate their thoughts and feelings directly to music and transmit them to their audience as purely as possible, using their voices only.

After sharing their music mainly live on stages across the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg over the past years, it is finally time to take the sound of mata from the stage to the studio and to condense everything that mata means to the members, both musically and personally, into their first EP. The five songs , which have been carefully selected from the mata repertoire and which were recorded in the studio of Philipp Jeschke in Aachen, take the listener on an emotional journey through five key experiences of life: consolation as a young infant („Abendlied“), playfulness in childhood („Drip Drop“), falling in love (Rode Tulpen), looking back on the past (Fliegen), and realising that life needs to take a new turn (Une Autre Ligne). All of these experiences are broadly shared and yet very individual - which is exactly what the sound of mata is all about: creating an intense shared moment of music that nevertheless leaves enough room for each voice to flourish in its very own and unique sound.

Artwork Creator: Jil Reinig
Recording, Editing & Mixing: Philipp Jeschke
Mastering: Roy Recklies

The EP is available here for your own music collection or online on the major streaming platforms.

Photo of Mary singing into a microphone in front of a black background. Mary is wearing black clothes.

Marie Pack

Marie – or Mary, as we try to keep the two Maries in the band apart – is the most recent mata member and contribues with her beautiful bright sound and mezzo voice, whereas she is not afraid to hit the high pitches, neither. Her curiosity in the human voice and experimenting with it, makes her an open-minded vocalist to whatever crazy mata arrangement she is confronted with. We are already curious to the arrangements she is holding for the matas in the future. Marie may be the oldest mata member, but that doesn‘t make her the most serious one – on the contrary: she‘s always in for a laugh during our mata rehearsals and keeps the good vibe flowing.

Photo of Lorena singing into a microphone and clapping. She is wearing black pants with a pink blouse against a black background.

Lorena Dürnholz

Lorena enriches mata with her beautiful pure voice, for which no technical challenge is too difficult. She also brings years of choir experience, which makes her blend perfectly into the overall mata sound and speeds up the rehearsal process through precise detail work. Apart from Lorena's musical strengths, she is also a great contributor to the group with new ideas, intelligent questions, and her gift for making difficult topics discussable in a casual way. In short, Lorena brings a lot of fresh air and positive energy that we don't want to miss.

Photo of Tabea singing into a microphone and looking to the side. She is wearing a black sweater against a black background.

Tabea Koloska

Tabea manages to combine crazy creativity with focused and structured work. Also her overview and spontaneity make working with her an absolute delight. She is mainly known, loved and responsible for melancholic songs with beautiful harmonies and melodies. Overall, she is the driving engine that every group needs.

Photo of Ariane holding a microphone and beating on her chest with the other hand. She is wearing black clothing with a beige jacket against a black background.

Ariane Baur

Ariane is a powerful, hard-working woman who gives mata the needed maturity in music such as on stage. On the other hand she offers a lot of room for jokes and craziness, always showing her empathy and patience towards all of us. Her arrangements add a certain groovy pop-ish spice to the repertoire. Among us funny girls, she is easily leading us with a lot of common sense, adding to our music her incredibly warm voice.

Photo from the side of Marie holding a microphone and looking down to the left with a smile. She is wearing a dark purple jacket with a beige scarf against a black background.

Marie Weis

Dropping one joke after the other, be it in German, French, English or Luxembourgish, you have to laugh along with Marie anyway. Through the unusual rhythms and her lyrics, which go from fantasy languages over childhood memories to social criticism, her compositions bring drive to the groove too. Furthermore, without Marie our overall sound would probably not be as precise, because she always finds more detail to improve in a piece. So in between her gags she doesn’t fear to kick our asses every now and then, especially when we relax too much on the music we already master.