Compost Karaoke by Matt Bachmann is out now! 12 Sep 2025

(Photo credit: Kady Ruth Ashcraft)

Compost Karaoke, the new album by New York-based composer & multi-instrumentalist Matt Bachmann, is now available to stream & purchase!

Weaving elements of propulsive jazz, bedroom chamber music, and 80s Japanese synthwork, Compost Karaoketells a story that’s as dramatic as it is intimate, beautiful as it is bombastic. Cinematic in sound and structure, Compost Karaoke unfolds like a journey through a honeycomb – each track a unique chamber connected by sonic fibers to the whole. Compact vignettes act as connective tissue, scaffolding the longer repetitive thematic pillars.

Compost Karaoke is Bachmann’s fourth release with Orindal Records and his first release since becoming a licensed social worker in New York. For Bachmann, Compost Karaoke translates to “songs of change,” marking a transition from past years dominated by touring as the bassist of Mega Bog and his own music to rooting in new work.

“At the heart of this transition was a personal struggle between the ‘clouds’ (art) and the ‘earth’ (the systemic problems of New York/US/world). Doing this more earthly work and having less time for the clouds changed my relationship to music. I had been so inside the music world that I had become blind to its generosity– the way it brings us together and allows us to collectively feel, dream, and escape. Making this record was a lifeline– an opportunity to put my sometimes isolating earthly work aside, and dream a bit with friends.”

Riding this renewed spirit of collaboration, Bachmann leaned heavier on his oldest creative confidants. He enlisted Derek Baron (Reading Group Records) to write woodwind arrangements for the skeletal piano sketches and recorded Baron on drums during an overnight session at the Bunker Studio in Brooklyn; Jeff Tobias (Modern Nature, Sunwatchers) expanded on Baron’s arrangements in moments of improvised rapture on alto saxophone and bass clarinet; and James Krichenia (Big Thief) gummed up the groove with hand drums and percussion. Decorated with synths, vibraphones, and guitar pedal sonic reimagining, Compost Karaoke is a musical habitat wholly unique, yet nodding to Bachmann’s guiding stars—Ryuichi Sakamoto, Natural Information Society, and RJ Miller, to name a few.

To achieve a healthy compost, you need both greens (food scraps) and browns (dead leaves, cardboard, etc.). Compost Karaoke is Bachmann’s attempt to strike a balance; the score to his latest life transition. For the listener, the imaginative movies that play along in their heads are endless.

"odd, tender, a little absurd, and entirely mesmerizing. Everything floats just slightly off-axis but never loses its pull." – Foxy Digitalis

Purchase Compost Karaoke cassettes & downloads HERE.

New Yorkers can see Matt Bachmann perform live at the Compost Karaoke album release show at The Owl in Brooklyn on Saturday, September 13. Iceblink & Adeline Strei support.