John Matthias is a musician, composer and physicist. In 2008, he won the PRS Foundation New Music Award (the musical equivalent of ‘The Turner Prize’) with Jane Grant and Nick Ryan for the development of a huge sonic installation entitled The Fragmented Orchestra, which also won an Honourary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica 2009. He has released three albums, Smalltown, Shining (2001) on the Accidental label, Stories from the Watercooler (2008) on the Ninja Tune/ Counter label and Cortical Songs (2008) (with Nick Ryan), a work for string orchestra and solo violin which includes remixes by Thom Yorke, Simon Tong, Jem Finer and many others, on the Nonclassical record label, which was shortlisted for the Independent Music Awards (US) 2010. He has worked with many recording artists including Radiohead (The Bends), Matthew Herbert and Coldcut and performed extensively including at the Wordless Music Series in New York, The Pompidou Centre in Paris and at the Union Chapel in London

He is Associate Professor in Sonic Arts at the University of Plymouth, UK and is currently developing new instruments and compositional processes relating to sonic events and spiking neurons. These initiatives include orchestral composition, distributed systems and the development of a new Neuronal Music Technology and will form the basis of many new works and artistic collaborations.