KEPT
What we keep
and what keeps us.
Story.
Music.
Body percussion.
Ensemble.
Presented at BN1Arts Centre, Brighton
Notes on Ritual
Story happens with a small ensemble: upright bass, acoustic guitar, and two body percussionists.
The parts - text, music and body percussion - were written and composed by Scanlon. Within that, the players listen, leave space, improvise and come in again. Some passages open out. Others hold.
Nothing is there to support from the outside. Everything is inside the same field.
You hear a call and a return. A line is taken up, set down, and picked up again from another place. The bass grounds it. The guitar opens it. The body percussion marks time, interrupts, and answers back.
At times, the ensemble takes on the role of a chorus. They echo, frame, and press against the story.
What’s held isn’t pushed away. It’s stayed with, until it changes shape.
There’s a discipline to it. The structure holds, but it doesn’t lock anything in. The performers keep contact with each other. Timing shifts slightly. Emphasis changes. The same material can land differently from one moment to the next.
Over time, separate parts begin to sit together. The work allows them to be seen at once.
Nothing is resolved too quickly. The piece gives things time to settle, and trusts what happens when they do.
About Matt Scanlon
Matt Scanlon is a performer, writer, and composer working across story, music, and body percussion.
He has worked internationally as part of the STOMP lineage, helping develop new material and performing in venues including the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Festival Hall.
As a jazz drummer, he has led his own quartet in the U.S. and Europe. That background shapes his approach to performance, where structure and listening sit side by side.
His current work brings together text, acoustic music, and rhythm in a single form.
KEPT is his latest piece.
He studied at Columbia University and Princeton Theological Seminary before turning back toward performance.
