Hong Kong Silicon Orchestra

The Silicon Orchestra was the result of a remarkable musical collaboration between two very different musicians, Robert Stone and Gordon Mathews. They met in Hong Kong in the mid 1990s, discovering an instant rapport, each bringing a unique set of skills and influences to their subsequent recording projects. Mathews, an American, had played the trumpet as a child but had switched to flute and saxophone by the time he was in his teens.

Mathews, an American, had played the trumpet as a child but had switched to flute and saxophone by the time he was in his teens. He found his way into the New York free jazz scene in the late 1970s and for a couple of years played screeching progressive jazz for audiences of 5 or 6 people, an experience that convinced him he'd starve to death if he made such music his life.


He quest led him to Japan where he studied Shakuhachi, the Japanese bamboo flute, eventually earning a teaching license and performing in concerts of traditional Japanese music, a feat few foreigners have achieved. He also formed a band with Japanese jazz musicians that performed around the northern island of Hokkaido throughout the early and mid-1980s.


Stone, on the other hand, had paid his dues in a more conventional context. Beginning with the guitar as a youngster growing up near Toronto in Canada, he'd soon also picked up bass and piano. As early as the final years of high school, he was earning a part-time living in weekend dance bands and eventually became a versatile sideman, backing singers like the revered Canadian folksinger, the late Stan Rogers and the American anti-war icon, Jerry Jeff Walker. He also worked in put-together backing bands for touring notables, like Chicago blues singers, regional pop stars, and once, the legendary Stan Getz.


Despite coming from such diverse backgrounds there was a lot of common ground between them and they quickly established a creative relationship that ranged across virtually all the jazz styles from big band to post bop. During its decade or so of existence, the H.K.S.O. released four successful albums, each vastly different from the others, but together tracing an exciting and complex musical evolution. Long out of print, these albums have now finally been re-issued through CDBaby.