Photo by Niek DoupLive in Deventer, May 2019 (Photo by Niek Doup)

Matthijs Kouw is an experimental musician based in The Netherlands exploring the relationship between movement and stasis. Using analog synthesis, software, field recordings, and recordings of various objects, Matthijs combines long-form drone with elements from acousmatic music, noise, and microsound.

This website contains a discography of Matthijs’ music that has been released in various formats, including releases on his own imprint clinamen, as well as an overview of installation pieces, scores for dance and theatre, music for film, and radio broadcasts (co-)produced by Matthijs.

‘Clinamen’ is a term used by the philosopher Lucretius to refer to the unpredictable swerving of atoms. Lucretius argues the behavior of atoms does not occur by strict necessity, but always with some element of chance. Swerving occurs at no fixed place or time and is an immanent property of the world that gives rise to creativity in all its myriad forms.