Matthew Lien

                Matthew Lien (lee-ENN), a resident of Canada' Yukon Territory, has been composing, recording and producing music for most of his life. Singing traditional German and American folk songs as a child with his family, he graduated to the guitar and piano by the age of 10. With formal music lessons leaving him uninspired, he abandoned them after a few weeks and proceeded to teach himself piano and music theory, drawing inspiration and knowledge from friends and family.

Matthew draws considerable inspiration from the natural world. In an effort to create a moving and inspiring experience for live audiences, and out of a strong desire to raise awareness about endangered wilderness, Matthew and renowned photographer and white-water paddler Ken Madsen developed the Yukon Wildlands Project. The pair have traveled rivers of the Yukon, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and Alaska, coordinating other musicians and artists in an effort to interpret these areas through music, visual images and sound design. Matthew has recorded peregrine falcons attacking grizzly bears, calving glaciers, squeaking furry picas, rolling icebergs and much more. Edited into six-channel surround sound, the material is then woven into original music composition and set ablaze in thrilling live performances with stunning photographic projection, dramatic sets and lighting design

                The latest and most ambitious of these collaborations between Madsen and Lien is the Caribou Commons Project, which has grown into a coalition of environmental and aboriginal representatives dedicated to the protection of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Canadian range of the Porcupine River caribou herd which calve in the Arctic Refuge each year. The Caribou Commons Project has completed several international efforts including a live concert tour which crossed Canada and the United States (including such renowned venues as the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.), as well as smaller multimedia presentations throughout North America. More recently, the "Walk To Washington, D.C. for the Arctic Refuge" completed a self-propelled journey of several thousand miles across the United States, with performances and events along the route climaxing at Capitol Hill in the United States.

The Caribou Commons Project continues to draw attention to the threat of oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the sensitive calving grounds of the Porcupine River caribou herd, and Matthew is currently at work on a new CD entitled "Arctic Refuge," dedicated to this issue.

Source :  www.matthewlien.com