Musician · Composer · Guitarist
British guitarist known for a unique playing style and compositions that are a progressive blend of rock and jazz. Three studio albums. Multiple band projects. Residing in Southern California and performing with musicians in Los Angeles and beyond.
My Perspective
I write a lot of music in many different styles, though typically in the vein of Progressive Rock/Jazz. I love to record, mix and produce my songs at my home studio and enjoy the art and craft of making an album.
My solo albums are theme-based which brings cohesion to a collection of songs that are otherwise stylistically varied. My longer songs allow for a lyrical theme to develop and repurpose the same musical idea in multiple ways, but I also like to write more concise songs or ideas better suited for film music.
People tell me that I have a unique playing style; or they hear the influences of Steve Hackett, Dave Gilmour and Andy Latimer, all of whom inspire my compositions along with the musical concepts of Mike Oldfield, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Yes. I love a bit of modern jazz like Al Di Meola and Brand X, but for me it all starts with The Beatles.
"The fact that Matuchniak is still exploring new avenues and producing his best work to date is an inspiration to us all"
"Acoustic to psychedelic to 'classic' to prog to jazz to whatever, but far from disjointed this is very much a complete piece of work"
"Mix a bit of Camel with Alan Parsons and drop in a little Pink Floyd — a lot of intriguing music for melodic prog fans"
"Easily demanding second, third, and more listens as you marvel at the elasticity of his notes and its haunting prowess"
Journey
During high school I formed my first band Janysium, releasing a home-made cassette album that sold over 1,000 copies in its first year. We joined forces with Mach One, released an album on vinyl, toured the London club circuit and select Universities across England, gaining attention from publicist Keith Goodwin (Yes, Marillion, Rod Argent, etc.) as part of the whole British Progressive Rock Revival Movement (sometimes referred to as the Neo-Prog movement) in the early 1980's. When we split, I went back to university to complete a degree in Maths.
After university I travelled throughout Asia, sustaining my existence through writing commercial jingles for Indian TV ads, along with my childhood friend Simon Strevens. Fellow Indian musicians invited us to play with them to an audience of 4,000. Of which 3,999 booed, so I married the other one.
My wife and I moved to USA and raised a family. And then I got itchy guitar fingers. Internet ads brought together Evolve IV to release Decadent Light (2008), before Gekko Projekt approached me to join, releasing two more albums Electric Forest (2012) and Reya of Titan (2015), before morphing into Bomber Goggles to release Decadent Light (2017). I'm currently performing in Lobate Scarp, based in Los Angeles and spearheaded by Adam Sears, appearing on their latest album You Have It All (2022) and at the RosFest Festival in Florida in 2022.
Keyboardist Mike Visaggio invited me to join Kinetic Element, based in Richmond, Virginia, in 2017. Despite the distances, we made it work, releasing three albums together, The Face of Life (2018), Live From New York (2020) and Chasing The Lesser Light (2022). We performed live at notable venues My Father's Place (New York 2019) and Orion Studios (Baltimore 2022), as well as a few festivals, ProgStock (New Jersey 2019), Prog on the Ranch (Florida 2020), and Winter's End (U.K. 2023). Our transatlantic show in the U.K. was to be our last act together, as sadly Mike's longtime illness caught up with him and he passed away in 2025.
I write a lot of music and began to release my own solo albums, performing live with musicians from Los Angeles. I've done session guitar on several albums, and composed music for a video game, humorous language training video and so on. I have released three solo studio albums, Uncover Me (2009) and Destiny (2015), as well as two live albums, Uncovered Live in L.A. (2014) and A Live Destination (2015). I am always working on new solo material and have concepts and music sketched out for a few more albums that are being developed.
In the last few years I've been asked to guest for several musicians, Marco Ragni, Hamlet Tinae / Transport Aerian, Shawn Gordon / Psychic for Radio, Steve Bonino Project, Marco Bernard / The Samurai of Prog), Tony Romero's Vortex, and Massimo Pieretti. A collection of these appears on album Sessions (2020), with a follow up album planned for release in 2027.
Solo Albums
Second studio album. A theme-based collection blending progressive rock, jazz, and melodic songwriting.
Listen on Bandcamp
Live album and DVD from the Uncovered Live concert in Los Angeles.
Listen on Bandcamp
Third studio album. A progressive blend of atmospheric guitar work over cinematic soundscapes, featuring the single "Victory".
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Live album and DVD capturing the energy of solo performances with Los Angeles session musicians.
Listen on Bandcamp
