The Whispering Wing
The Whispering Wing circles Ornithomancy: the ancient practice of divining meaning from the movements and voices of birds. Across cultures and centuries, birds have been reckoned as intermediaries—figures whose cries and trajectories traced a living script between the earthly and the divine.
In Ancient Rome, this practice was formalised through the templum in caelo (“temple in the sky”): a consecrated field of vision within which an augur observed and interpreted signs. Within this frame, the sky became a kind of text. The ancients distinguished between oscines, birds whose calls carried meaning, and alites, whose patterns of flight revealed intent. Such readings were not abstract curiosities, but acts bound to decision and consequence, where the smallest motion might be taken to affirm or forbid.
Alongside this codified language lay a deeper mystery. The seasonal disappearance and return of birds—vanishing beyond the horizon and arriving again without visible cause—must have suggested forces beyond human knowing. Phenomena such as murmuration, in which vast flocks wheel and contract as if governed by a single will, offered not interpretation but awe: movement too complex to decode, yet impossible to ignore.
Against this older way of seeing, The Whispering Wing turns quietly to the present. The skies through which these patterns once unfolded are increasingly interrupted—by structures, noise, and the dense signals of human activity. Where meaning was once sought in attentive observation, it is now often obscured or overwritten. The sense of the sky as a site of listening, of reading, begins to thin.
This work inhabits the space between these perspectives. It moves between gesture and suggestion, between clarity and uncertainty, as if tracing shapes that almost resolve into language—inviting the listener to attend, to interpret, and perhaps to question what remains discernible in the sky above.
Matthew Vehl : Composer Bio
Matthew Vehl is a genre-skipping, cross-disciplinary creative. A composer, arranger,
producer, songwriter and performer, his background in jazz, rhythm & blues and
improvisation informs a practice and output that spans electronica, sound design, new
music, pop, soul and contemporary classical.
As a touring musician, Matthew has performed at Splendour in the Grass, Meredith,
Glastonbury, WOMAD UK and Sziget festivals with Bombay Royale, a Bollywood orchestra
formed with jazz college classmates. The group released 3 critically acclaimed albums on
their hometown of Melbourne’s beloved Hopestreet Recordings label, supported Sharon
Jones and the Dap Kings on a national tour, and earned syncs in the HBO series Better
Call Saul, Ubisoft’s Far Cry 4. and the UK indie feature film Polite Society.
As producer / composer / performer, Matthew founded the electro-soul trio Cool
Explosions, with PBS presenter & vocalist Elle Young. The group released their debut self
titled EP on vinyl and performed at the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Primrose Potter Salon.
In 2023 Matthew released an original album of glam-tinged soul as VEHL, with a 10 piece
band, including a 4 piece saxophone section inspired by the horn sections of T-Bone
Walker and the Howlin’ Wolf.
A VCA graduate (BMus, Improvisation), Matthew additionally holds a Graduate Diploma
in Composition from Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. An orchestrator with a rock
and roll heart, Matty’s work comprises hybrid electro-acoustic composition, ranging from
deep soul, chamber and orchestral textures to sample based live sequencing and
electronica.