Press
The Warped, Wondrous World of Microtonal Jazz on Bandcamp
“Microtonal jazz artists are rarely purists in their approach. As Muntz explains, “treating tuning as an essential compositional parameter, something to be messed with on the same level as harmony, rhythm or form is attractive because there are so many ways to do it. I’m inspired by my peers doing it, not because I want to make music that sounds like theirs, but because it opens up so many questions and possibilities for the sounds and ideas in my head. My sense is that a lot of other young-ish musicians feel this way too.” - Stewart Smith
Chamber Music America profile on The Vex Collection
“What would music sound like today if the double-reed had been the dominant instrument voice for the last 200 years? With one foot in jazz and another in a speculative future, The Vex Collection seeks to answer this question via their dynamic, complex music centered around a myriad of double-reed instruments. Utilizing instruments from across the globe, alongside homemade double reed instruments made with 3D printing, PVC, carbon fiber, and other unique methods, The Vex Collection defies easy categorization.” - Orchid McRae
The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp, July 2024
“Like an ever-increasing number of musicians, Mat Muntz (of The Vex Collection) embraces a serious mobility in his work, playing bass and bagpipes, and nonchalantly toggling between composed and improvised work, to say nothing of straddling different styles. This gripping new release is a weird kind of hybrid.” - Peter Margasak
The Quietus - Organic Intelligence XLVII: Microtonal Jazz
“A wave of young composer-performers [are] deploying microtonality and alternative tuning systems in works that defy the artificial boundaries between jazz, classical and other traditions. This is a real avant-garde community, with many of the artists contributing to each other’s projects… Microtonal jazz is where it’s at and the five artists featured below – Anna Webber, Modney, Mat Muntz, Alec Goldfarb and Zekkereya El-magharbel – are the tip of the iceberg.” - Stewart Smith
The Wire - Review of Phantom Islands (May 2023)
The Wire - Review of The Vex Collection (April 2022)
