Julie Matson – Sound Designer
Julie Matson is a Vancouver-born UX designer, sound artist, and musician dedicated to exploring the aural relationships of difficulty, language and beauty. Julie’s current projects include “Echo Beach,” an experimental, drone synth band. She is also a touring member of “Thor & Friends,” which she was invited to join in 2016. She also performs under the moniker “ AB/7A,” an intellectual harsh noise project dedicated to a full-faceted sound range with minimal gear. She has a deep history with college radio, which began in Vancouver at CiTR 101.9fm, and continued in Montreal at CJLO 1690am, where she served as producer, host and Board member on the Board of Directors. She is now an active Board member with the CEC, Canadian Electroacoustic Community. While pursuing her Bachelor Degree in Electroacoustics, Julie formed the first female & non-binary live electroacoustic group at Concordia, aptly named “Les FilleHarmoniques.” In her spare time, she thinks about how listening is a form of activism and an important tool for social change. She also likes to take pictures of her funny animals, and spend time amongst trees, rocks and bodies of water.
Julie Matson’s current art practices focus on using sound, and listening, as a political instrument. It is an agent of methodology and delivery that transfixes the message in an engaging way – through texts that have been transposed into musical notation and thoughtfully delivered through a sound medium. Often her works are conveyed alongside video accompaniment, or another form of sensory exposure.
Coupling a feminist approach in her works, Julie combines technology with the art of handmade gestures in her pieces, adding a level of intention, care and connection that is often lost in the transmission of synthesis.