Matheus Manente
Composer, Musician, producer
Before watching Star Wars, Matheus never knew that music could evoke so much emotion and change. He then realized art had the power to make an impact in the world. He had to give it a try. With this inspiration in mind, Matheus started playing guitar and bass in his childhood, later becoming a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer.
Matheus still didn’t bring down the empire, but he became specialized in audio recording, working on more than 150 releases with progressive bands such as Opus V, The Vicious Head Society, Anison Lab, The Non-Playable Characters, Time Machinery and many others.
Along the way, Matheus has also worked besides legendary musicians such as Shinichi Ishihara, Elizabeth Zharoff, Howard Drossin, Yumi Matsuzawa, Felipe Andreoli, Mark Zonder, Diogo Mafra and Ricardo Cruz.
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Press quotes
Full Biography
Matheus Manente is a musician, arranger, composer and producer from Brazil. His works include audio recording, mixing and mastering on Harvestman Studios, as well as computer music programming and graphic design. He began his studies with the classical guitar when he was 12 years old, and later developed interest for many other instruments – Such as bass, drums, keyboards, kalimbas and extended range electric guitars, as well as baritone singing.
For 20 years, Matheus played live with numerous pop/rock bands in the metropolitan region of São Paulo and wrote for specialized websites. He also created jingles and small soundtracks, produced and recorded many bands in studio and taught practical and theoretical classes at local music schools such as Mousikê.
First Releases and game music remixes
Using Myspace to promote his first recordings (an early social media website), Matheus submitted a track for a GameMusic4All compilation, which was accepted. This album marks the beginning of Matheus’ career, and many other releases followed, giving him the opportunity to play and record with acclaimed musicians such as Howard Drossin (USA), Mark Zonder (USA), Laura Intravia (USA), Gryzor87 (Spain), John Robert Matz (USA), Christophe Blondel (France), Jeff Swingle (USA), Pontus Hultgren (Sweden), Jordan Chin (USA) and many more.
Most of the albums were game music remix compilations and soundtracks, allowing Matheus to dive into the game music world, which had a great influence on his music. Matheus also met Jeriaska and featured on the Video Game Music in Context DVD series, creating the soundtrack for various segments and interviews – including one for legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu.
During this time, Matheus maintained a channel on Youtube with covers that summed up to millions of views, was nominated to major guitar contests and played with many bands, such as Threat Jam and Hazard Blender.
Time Machinery and Illusions Dimension
In 2013, the avant-gardé / progressive project Time Machinery started as a collaboration between Matheus and Andrey Sazonov (Russia). It included musicians from different countries, such as Mika Tyyskä a.k.a. Mr. Fastfinger (Finland), Adam Fulara (Poland), Arsafes (Russia), Masato Itoh (Japan) and many more. The EP “Timetrips to Elsewhere” was the first original work released by Matheus, and was praised by its unorthodox approach to music.
In 2014, after a long period of production, Matheus released his first solo album, Illusions Dimension. The concept is based on philosophical struggles, inspired by the power of music to make people think, question the world and evolve. The album was described as “one of the great progressive releases of the year” in international reviews. Matheus promoted the album on live workshops and masterclasses, and eventually re-released it as a remastered version to keep up with modern standards.
The Library and Vmbrella circles
After being interviewed and featured many times in podcasts and radios such as Metal World Radio, Matheus started working with musicians from The Library circle in 2015. Matheus featured on several of their projects such as doom / progressive metal band Hours at Hand (USA/Greece), thrash metal artist Chris Violence (USA), and heavy metal act Manente / Alonzo / Du Bose (USA).
In 2016, Matheus cofounded the worldwide progressive music label VmbrellA, together with Tom Geldschläger (Germany), Vishal J. Singh (India), Andrey Sazonov (Russia), Fatum Black (Ukraine) and Jimmy Pitts (USA). The focus of their releases was to connect obscure artists to the public and reopen the infinity of art to the world.
Eden Seed, Materia Brasilis and other BANDS
Between 2016 and 2018, Matheus played bass for the heavy metal band Eden Seed (Brazil), founded by muslim guitarist Gisele Marie Rocha, an icon in the fight against stereotypes. The band featured on major TV programs. Matheus co-wrote and produced their first full-lenght album, Age of Creation, which was praised by it’s creative experimentation on many reviews, leaving the band soon after.
In 2018, Matheus started the Mana Brasilis project (USA/Brazil), an ensemble of musicians dedicated to rearrange game music in brazilian rhythms and styles. The group was born inside the Materia Collective music label, including members such as Josué Ferreira, Matheus Souza and Carlos Oliveira. The project was highlighted by it’s chill, latin vibes.
At the same time, Matheus was also one of the founding members of award-winner Heaven: Choir Metal (Brazil), a symphonic metal band with choir, which included maestros João Prioli and Rafael Leoni. He co-wrote and recorded their first singles, including Sacred Blood.
At the same time, Matheus joined briefly Free The Green Beans (USA), a band that creates classic rock arrangements for game music with Nathaniel Chambers, Ian Martyn and Lord Bif Music, and had short participations on projects such as The Bwak Choir (USA).
The Notevember Challenge, Thennecan, Pandemic
In 2018, Matheus did the Notevember challenge, as proposed by Taylor Ambrosio Wood. Similar to Inktober, musicians do one song per day, from scratch to finish, throughout the entire month of November. The resulting collection of 30 songs, which are very experimental and short in nature, was released as The Notevember 2018 Collection EP, and later recompiled as Selections from Notevember 2018.
Around the same time, Matheus began an ongoing partnership with metal/fusion guitarist Thennecan (Chile), which spanned various albums, singles and culminated in performing at Ñoñoparty Chile 2021 during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, besides giants of the south american VGM scene.
Matheus worked with many other bands and artists, such as Leandro Fonseca (Brazil), Universo Relativo (Brazil), Blue Blood DK (Denmark) and Drift Into Black (USA), and performed active roles for labels such as Patient Corgi, Pixel Mixers and Materia Collective, producing music for numerous albums during that time.
The Vicious Head Society, The Non-Playable Characters
Also during the pandemic, Matheus joined The Vicious Head Society (Ireland), a progressive metal project by Graham Keane, contributing with basses, additional instruments, mixing and mastering for their critically acclaimed album Extinction Level Event in 2021 – As well as further releases still to be announced.
Another band that Matheus joined during the pandemic was The Non-Playable Characters (Brazil), a progressive rock project where Matheus performed the roles of producer, bassist, guitarist, plus mixing and mastering engineer. Their debut album, Post Earth Episode 1: Autosaving, is the first of a trilogy.
In 2022, Matheus also recorded his first web course – an introduction to audio recording, mixing and mastering – which went online on the Apolo Group, by Diogo Mafra (guitarist for Almah and Edu Falaschi).
Matheus also contributed to a few bibliographical references, including the doctoral thesis of Dr. Fabio Scucuglia, named “The electroacoustic interpretation: reflections on the role of the diffusion interpreter on mixed music“, creating a whole interface in Pure Data (pd) language to allow the execution of a electroacoustic piece named tempus.revolutio; as well as the music theory book “Advanced Modal System” by composer Leandro Fonseca.
Anison Lab, Unrelenting Mimesis, Opus V
In 2022, Matheus began playing bass with Anison Lab, a project led by legendary tokusatsu/anime vocalist Ricardo Cruz, as well as Lucas Araujo from Taiko Productions. This collaboration led to various live performances on huge events such as Anime Friends, as well as many singles and video releases in the following years, including the upcoming album Invasion Zone and performances with legendary singers such as Yumi Matsuzawa and Shinichi Ishihara.
Following the big Materia takedown, Matheus decided to gather his best game-music arrangements, re-recording, re-mixing and re-mastering them; added many new arrangements to the collection; and finally released a long awaited prog metal odyssey called Unrelenting Mimesis. A second bonus album, entitled Acoustic Mimesis, was also released – As some of his earlier covers had a different, acoustic vibe to them that wouldn’t fit well on the first album, but still deserved to be published.
Also in 2023, Matheus released a new single called Fugue to Celephais – the first of a series of singles based on tales from the “dream cycle” by H. P. Lovecraft. Legendary bassist Felipe Andreoli (Angra, Matanza Ritual) recorded for the song, as well as drummer Leo Miyata.
Finally, 2023 ended with the news that Matheus had joined the progressive metal band Opus V (Brazil), with whom he recorded the singles “God’s Unjust Math” and “Never”, as well as an upcoming album that was produced by Thiago Bianchi (vocalist for Shaman and Noturnall) and recorded at Fusão Studio.
Now Matheus ventures into new territory as he prepares new material to be released in 2024, including continuations to his first instrumental solo album, Illusions Dimension.
Find out more about Matheus Manente:
Qualifications
Instruments and Composition
Matheus studied with many teachers throughout the years. Some of the highlights are:
- Airton Fernandes – Bass and improvisation
- Euler Moisés – Composition
- Fabio Scucuglia – Composition and music history
- Jefferson Borim – Singing
- Leandro Fonseca – Guitar and improvisation
- Marcelo Queiroz – Computer music
He also attended courses and masterclasses on instruments and composition by musicians such as:
- Vinnie Moore – Guitar technique
- Frank Gambale – Guitar technique
- Marcelo Gomes – Improvisation
- Ivan Vilella – Brazilian rhythms
- Jordan Rudess – Composition and technology
- Flo Menezes – Contemporary composition
Music Production
Matheus attended various courses, masterclasses and workshops throughout the years. Some of the highlights are:
- Stella Gotshtein – Audio concepts
- Devin Townsend – Music production
- Rodrigo Itaboray – Music production
- Adair Daufembach – Recording process
- Graham Cochrane – Recording process
- Paulo Anhaia – Mixing process
- Leslie Brathwaite – Mixing process
- Adam “Nolly” Getgood – Mixing process
- Joe West – Mixing process
On many subjects, Matheus acquired expertise with the help and influence of a vast bibliography he owns, which includes works by Marisa Ramires, Nelson Faria, Arnold Schoenberg, Hans-Joachim Koellreuter, Richard Moore, Walter Piston, Almir Chediak and others.
As a side note, Matheus has a degree in atmospheric sciences from the University of Sao Paulo (USP), worked for FUNDESPA, was a leading researcher supported by FAPESP on meteorological projects and cofounded the startup Oráculo Meteorologia in 2014. There, he worked as chief operating officer, meteorologist and developer until 2021, and was a startup mentor on various events. He isn’t very active on the brazilian startup ecosystem and meteorological community anymore, but Matheus is still a science/news editor at Meteored and his articles (in portuguese) can be seen here.
