Monrad is the solo moniker of Matthew Ramon. Part of a reverb-drenched, instrumental surf punk band for most of his twenties (Rencontrez l’amour - Born of punk and reverb), he only grabbed back to music when he finally settled in a rural Italian village. Loyal to a reverby guitar sound, Matthew started experimenting with other instruments, different genres, styles and sounds. 

 

‘Musically, the songs are rock but also sort of a dark mix of surf, spaghetti western and other like minded genres. I think the artist contains an amalgamation of influences but definitely has a signature sound.’ (Divide and Conquer)

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Many hours and nightly sessions later, supported by Filip Tanghe (recording and/or live engineering Balthazar, Warhaus, J.Bernardt), a first humble attempt, the EP ‘Monrad’, was released. Two years of digging deeper, nurturing and maturing his music and finding his voice, led to the recording of his first full-length album ‘Wired’.

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"Monrad moves between singing and talking, succeeding in giving the song importance and solemnity, while his seductive voice and guitars take us into a harmonic and atmospheric world: have a good trip! Recommended" (We are YMX - music blog).

 

"Alle elf nummers zijn sfeervol en klinken heel sterk. Het lijkt of Ramon een soundtrack schreef voor een donkere roadmovie waarbij hij erin slaagt om een duistere spanning op te bouwen met zijn zalige composities. Door de donkere stem van Ramon wordt Monrad dikwijls met Leonard Cohen, The National en Mark Lanegan vergeleken. Wij vinden vooral dat dit soloproject een sterke eigen sound heeft. Wired is zeker één van de topplaten van 2021, een album dat je gehoord moet hebben" (Luminous Dash)

 

After 3 years, intensifying his collaboration with Filip Tanghe, Monrad is back with a new EP ‘Not by design’ (released early November 2024) - six new songs building on previous releases, experimenting with synths and different musical layers. For these recordings Simon Casier (Balthazar, Zimmerman, Noémie Wolffs) and Michiel Balcaen (Warhaus, Balthazar, Rosenahl), laid down the rhythm section of the songs.