Matyas Wolter
Sitar & Surbahar
In his early years as a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and collector of remote music
Wolter experimented with different styles in his home studio: from punk to blues and American
primitive guitar, musique concrete and noise to post punk and free jazz. During his
musicological studies at the TU Berlin, he dealt intensively with Indian raga music and
was enchanted. In order to learn all the complex intricacies of that music in a traditional way, he began
learning sitar and surbahar music under sitar master Subroto Roy Chowdhury and lived for more than five years
together with his teacher in his home in Calcutta. After the death of his teacher in 2017, he continued his studies under the guidance of the famous sarod master Irfan Khan. Matyas has made guest appearances internationally on numerous well-known stages. So far he has produced four albums of classical raga music and three critically acclaimed albums with the Pulsar Trio. In addition, Matyas worked in numerous musical projects as a guest musician and composed film music. Most recently he was a co-founder of the Berlin Raga Tribe(BRT), an initiative to promote authentic performances of traditional raga music in and around Berlin.
His latest archive project "Lucknow-Shahjahanpur-Gharana-Archive" restores historical sound recordings
of old masters of Indian raga music and makes them accessible to a new audience.