On tour from New York City, modular synthesist Matthew Ryals presents a live improvised solo set in support of his new album Exalge, out September 5 on Infrequent Seams. The LP documents a spontaneous first meeting with Italian violist Federica Furlani, recorded live in Milan. Copies of the album will be available at the show.

Ryals will also lead a workshop the following afternoon titled Cultivating an Improvisational Practice as an Electronic Musician, offering insight and approaches for integrating improvisation into an electronic music practice.

Matthew Ryals
Matthew Ryals (he/him) is a New York City-based synthesist and composer-improviser whose music delves into improvisation, real-time sound generation, cybernetics, chance operations, and archival experimentation. Described as “a sonic explorer on the frontier of experimental music” whose work is “a fascinating foray to the edges of generative music production” (Plastic Mag), Matthew’s music has been praised for its “full-blown cybernetic synth shocks and mirrors” that are “unabashedly confident” (Tabs Out) and for treating sounds “as if they were alive, breathing” to create something “truly immersive and unforgettable” (Beats Per Minute).

A dedicated educator, Matthew teaches modular synthesis, electronic music composition, music production, and guitar to students worldwide, including workshops for Art Science Connect at THE GRADUATE CENTER CUNY and an upcoming workshop at Indexical in Santa Cruz. He also co-curates Artifact, a Brooklyn-based experimental music series that was awarded a Brooklyn Arts Fund grant by Brooklyn Arts Council to support its 2025 season and has presented artists such as Lea Bertucci, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Cecilia Lopez, Brandon Lopez, Laura Cocks, and Joanna Mattrey.

Originally from rural Arkansas, Matthew holds an MM in classical guitar from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a BM from Arkansas State University.

CHARI
CHARI is an NY Emmy-nominated composer and interdisciplinary artist working across sound, performance, and media art. As a performer, their work investigates societal “fault lines”—points of tension and release that impact the human condition. As a media artist, their critical engagement with archives and embodiment operates through, with, and against technology, informed by Black cultural practices, scholarship, and technological methodologies. As a composer, they are known for dense, evolving electronic compositions, experimental classical ensemble pieces, a powerful and delicate singing voice, and multichannel sound installations.

Recent works include Speculative Landscapes, an archival project using embodied mapping to document sites tied to the Gullah-Geechee in South Carolina; Breaking Time, a large ensemble piece premiered in 2025 with the Seattle Modern Orchestra; and MUTATE, a large-scale installation and performance that created an archive in a 20,000-square-foot Seattle Steamplant to house Black cultural artifacts. Building on MUTATE, their current research focuses on building a performable archive in three-dimensional digital space.

CHARI is currently an Assistant Professor of Black Media Practices in the Film and Digital Media Department at UC Santa Cruz.