Keyboardist Ed Matthews began Noise Level in 2004 as an ethno-ambient, electronic sound project. The musical objective is to create music that exists in recorded form, yet lends itself to improvisation in a live setting.
Released June, 2009, The Liquid Sky, was favourably reviewed in Exclaim. It climbed to the #3 position in the CHRW Radio Western’s Top Thirty Countdown. A remix album followed a year later.
Meanwhile, Noise Level's contribution to the London live music scene in 2009 resulted in being nominated for CHRW Radio Western's Local Artist of the Year and the 2010 London Music Awards in the Electronics category. On Sunday, April 11th, Noise Level won in the Electronics Category at the 6th Annual Jack Richardson Music Awards in London, Ontario.
Conceptual Continuity, released April, 2010, debuted in the #1 position on the Radio Western Top Thirty Charts. It is presently nominated as one of 2010’s Local Album of the Year on CHRW Radio Western.
The disc also caught the attention of London Free Press Entertainment Editor James Reaney, who featured Noise Level in his weekly column “Reaney’s Pick” on April 11th.
In June 2010, Noise Level was featured in an interview setting on both “Eargasm” and “Radio Renegade,” and played two live-to-air sessions of new and improvised music on CHRW Radio Western.
This Island Earth, released January 2011, radically transforms earlier material into stronger, beat-driven “live” tracks. It also serves to highlight Mr. Matthews’ developing skills as a composer, keyboardist and producer.
Noise Level's next full-length disc, entitled Body, is slated for released in January, 2012. It will feature a mix of dubstep, minimal techno and ambient chill-out tracks, several of which have been part of the live repertoire over the last year.
Noise Level continues to push toward an Impressionist blend of ethnographic World beats and lush electronic textures – and a Romantic longing for the Infinite.