FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7/7/2021
Contact: Ancient-Future.Com Records
1-415-459-1892
info@ancient-future.com

PRESS RELEASE: Ancient Future Concert Streamed Live

Alternate Reality Concerts Continue

Video from First Ancient Future Concert Since 2019!

Subscribers to the Ancient Future Times wrote to suggest that Ancient Future offer virtual concerts during the pandemic and beyond. A new series of Alternate Reality Concerts from the Ancient Future was created in response, and Matthew Montfort was the inaugural performer on his birthday, February 12, 2021.

Exactly four months later, on June 12, 2021, Ancient Future performed as an ensemble for the first time since September 1, 2019, when the band performed at the Kentucky Mine Amphitheater in Sierra City, California. Tabla master Aditya Kalyanpur was on that date and handed his iPhone to audience members to take videos of the performance. He shared the results with Jhankar, an Indian arts organization in Cincinnati, and they came forth to sponsor this streaming concert. The concert featured a trio program consisting of Matthew Montfort on scalloped fretboard guitar, Aditya Kalyanpur on tabla, and Frank Martin on keyboards performing compositions by Matthew Montfort and Frank Martin.

More online concerts are in the works, and will be announced on ancient-future.com. To sign up for upcoming shows, simply send your email address to info@ancient-future.com. Put "Alternate Reality Concert" in the subject. You will receive a link to participate before each performance. There's currently no charge, but donations are very much needed to support the music, especially in this time of uncertainty as to when intimate indoor concerts might become safe and economically viable again.

Watch YouTube Series

Media Coverage

The East Bay Express published this article about the Alternate Reality Concert Series including an interview with Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort and a link to Lustful Elephants Trumpet Spring on YouTube:

Ancient Future: Global music without limits. FLUID FANTASTIC Ancient Future creates music using traditional acoustic instruments producing a calm, mind-altering sound that’s difficult to describe. By j. poet. July 7, 2021.

Lustful Elephants Trumpet Spring by Ancient Future

Ancient Future Trio: Frank Martin, Aditya Kalyanpur, and Matthew Montfort

On July 7, 2021, the first of a series of remixes from the concert was released on Ancient Future's YouTube page. It's a preview with excerpts from Matthew Montfort's piece, Lustful Elephants Trumpet Spring (L.E.T.S.). It was composed after studying Rag Basant, a springtime raga that captures the feeling of separated lovers longing to unite. The caption on an associated ragamala painting read: "Bound with a peacock's feathers, his topknot is erect. Because of the burgeoning mango shoot, his face is as a flower. Elephant-like, he joyfully wanders in the forest among the gopis. Such is Basant raga." Montfort woke up in the middle of the night dreaming of a melody that conjures elephants in mating season. It begins with a low riff that depicts an elephant's legs, and then moves to a jump from low to high like an elephant's trunk trumpeting in excitement. The piece quickly became a part of Ancient Future's live repertoire, and a studio version is in production for the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings.

Biographies

Hi-Res Trio Photo for Print (3.5" x 2.5", 300 dpi, 1 MB)

Matthew Montfort (band leader, scalloped fretboard guitar)

Hi-Res Photo of Matthew Montfort (5" x 3", 300 dpi, 678k)

Ancient Future leader Matthew Montfort is included on the DigitalDreamDoor.com 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists list for his innovative work on the scalloped fretboard guitar and his influence on other acoustic guitarists over the years. He has performed worldwide, from the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra on the golden coast of Spain near Barcelona to the Mumbai Festival at the Gateway of India in Bombay.

Aditya Kalyanpur (tabla, percussion)

Hi-Res Photo of Aditya Kalyanpur (6.5" x 4.5" 300 dpi, 1.5 MB)

Aditya Kalyanpur began his training on the tabla at the age of five under the guidance of the late Alla Rakha Khan and his son Zakir Hussain. Aditya was first seen performing with Ustad Zakir Hussain for the famous Wah Taj! television commercial at the age of 11. He has worked with top artists including Shivkumar Sharma, Shujaat Khan, A.R. Rahman, Katy Perry, and Keith Richards.

Frank Martin (keys)

Hi-Res Photo of Frank Martin (3.5" x 3.5", 300 dpi)

Master keyboardist Frank Martin has worked with a wide variety of artists that include Stevie Wonder, Sting, Flora Purim & Airto Moriera, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Santana, B.B. King, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, L. Subramaniam, Zakir Hussain, Dizzy Gellespie, Stanley Turrentine, Wayne Shorter, Chico Pinheiro, Annie Lennox, MC Hammer, and many others.

First Video from the Alternate Reality Concert Series Tops Ethnocloud Charts

Ethnocloud: https://ethnocloud.com/Matthew_Montfort/?y_video=14646&b=943
YouTube: https://youtu.be/smFCU30iWjE

Sympathetic Serenade for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort

The first video released from Ancient Future's Alternate Reality Concert Series is the #3 video on the Ethnocloud World Music Chart, and the #1 video on the Ethnocloud World Music Chart: India for June 2021. The piece debuted as the #6 video on the Ethnocloud World Music Chart, and the #1 video on the Ethnocloud World Music Chart: India for May 2021.

When Matthew Montfort was working on his debut solo recording for scalloped fretboard guitar, he recorded a number of spontaneously improvised serenades that became Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar. An eighth improvisation, Sympathetic Serenade, was later released as a mini EP. In this live recording from the inaugural performance of the Alternate Reality Concert Series from the Ancient Future, he revisits the piece with a new interpretation on his custom Martin scalloped fretboard guitar in which he expands on the original's use of the melodic elements of Rag Bhairavi and mixes in chordal structures from Spanish guitar music.

Matthew Montfort Introduces Sympathetic Serenade for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar and the Alternate Reality Concert Series

Matthew Montfort talks about his first solo guitar mini EP, Sympathetic Serenade for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar, and his plans for the Alternate Reality Concert Series from the Ancient Future.

YouTube Talk: https://youtu.be/OlieVmYQ2tA
Playlist with Both Video Excerpts: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzj87klpoW4HvFS4hYwojk1Ir1ICc66xf

Sympathetic Serenade Mini EP

Hi-Res Cover Art by Matthew Montfort (2 MB, 300 dpi 5" x 5")

Sympathetic Serenade for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar by Matthew Montfort. Ancient-Future.Com EP AF-2012. Signed EP CD-R. List $12.98. Buy Link. iTunes. >YTmusic.

Video is First Featuring Matthew Montfort's New Scalloped Fretboard Guitar

Hi-Res Photo of Martin Guitar with Scalloped Fretboard by Alan Perlman (3.6 MB, 300 dpi, 7.4" x 14.8")
Hi-Res Photo of Scalloped Fretboard by Alan Perlman (6.6 MB, 300 dpi, 15.3" x 9.7")

Custom Martin Guitar with Fretboard Scalloped by Alan Perlman

The video of Sympathetic Serenade from the inaugural edition of the Alternate Reality Concert Series is the very first release featuring Montfort's latest custom scalloped fretboard guitar, which is the result of a collaboration between Montfort, Dick Boak of the Artist Relations Department of C.F. Martin & Co., and San Francisco luthier Alan Perlman.

Dick Boak has been involved in the conception of more than one hundred forty signature guitar collaborations with the top musical talents of our time. He worked with Montfort to help design the instrument, which features a very large sound hole to add volume, an extra upper bout sound hole so that Montfort can hear the guitar better, a cutaway with extra frets protruding into the sound hole to accommodate his extended playing range, and a short scale yet wide neck to allow for greater string bending capability.

Master luthier Alan Perlman was also a consultant in the design and added the final modifications including scalloping the fretboard using new methods he developed. Scalloping a fretboard is a process by which the wood in between the frets is hollowed out so that the pads of the fingers touch only the strings and not the fretboard. This reduces friction while bending strings to produce ornaments more characteristic of the sitar.

156 Word Announcement

Ancient Future performed a free live streaming concert on June 12 on YouTube and Facebook Live. Sponsored by Jhankar, an Indian arts organization in Cincinnati, the concert featured scalloped fretboard guitar pioneer Matthew Montfort, tabla maestro Aditya Kalyanpur, and master keyboardist Frank Martin. It was the first Ancient Future performance since their 40th anniversary season ended in late 2019. In response to the pandemic, a new series of Alternate Reality Concerts from the Ancient Future was created. Matthew Montfort was the inaugural performer on his birthday, February 12, 2021. The first video release from the series, Sympathetic Serenade for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar, topped the Ethnocloud World Music Chart for May and June 2021. On July 7, 2021, the first of a series of remixes from the Ancient Future concert was added to Ancient Future's YouTube page. To sign up for upcoming shows, send your email address to info@ancient-future.com. Put "Alternate Reality Concert" in the subject.

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