The Suitcase Junket

Matt Lorenz's vision, manifest in his project The Suitcase Junket, developed in the tension between the grand and the solitary. Grand in imagery, sound, and staging. Solitary in thrift and self-reliance. NPR calls Lorenz a "master of musical imagination." What instruments he requires, Lorenz builds from scratch and salvage. What parts five players would perform, he performs alone. The spectacle of his one-man set bears comparison to legends of showmanship, brilliance, madness, and invention. While audiences are captivated by that solitary form and the show itself, Lorenz, who homesteads in Western Massachusetts, is most serious about the songs. Over the course of six full-length releases, the latest from Renew Records at BMG, he has written a world into existence, crowded with characters, narratives, voices, imagery, sounds as wide and varied as mountain throat singers and roadhouse juke boxes, plus newsreels of the planet's destruction and salvage. More songs are coming.