Eluvium

I shall report back.

especially if yoo like yer vaccuum cleaner noise old-school style.

While I'm not sure this statement even begins to capture the quietness of Eluvium, it's certainly hilarious nonetheless. Cheers.

Guys, if you like Eno, MBV, Fennesz, Free Association, the more droney Bügsküll, or anything blissy/droney, you can't go wrong with this guy's stuff! (this guy being Matthew Cooper.. from Seattle, but until very recently, Portland, originally.)

I've even included three YSI links, for those willing to sample:

"Under The Water It Glowed" from the debut, 2003's Lambient Material:
http://l1.yousendit.com/d.php?id=38TM0F5Q2WISK15UYFMKOFXUOG

"Genius And The Thieves" from 2004's An Accidental Memory In Case of Death, which is his solo piano mini album:
http://l1.yousendit.com/d.php?id=1T087493ANDW41RNQ2XW3M5MSK

"Everything To Come" from the latest album, 2005's Talk Amongst The Trees:
http://l1.yousendit.com/d.php?id=CJNUX2E61EOK390SIYESIG8WO

I found the music to be very, very lull.

And yeah, there is no piano on Talk Amongst The Trees, but -- while I like Cooper's piano playing, it contrasts with the textures that play along it on Lambient IMHO. I'm glad he got the piano facet out of his system all in one release, and subsequently ditched it altogether on the new one, as I'm clearly most in love with the latest one, now that it's nothing but gorgeous other-worldly textures from stop to finish, no lame spots (sorry, Bimble, must agree to disagree with you there.). The final piece "One" sounds like a completely flattened, droned chorus of Depeche's "Enjoy The Silence", which is kinda neat.. would make a great segue somewhere in a DJ set.

He has a new album, _Copia_, coming soon. Will be pre-ordering it from Temporary Residence. Any reactions from people who've already heard it?

Also on tour soon.

TOUR DATES
Mar 7 @ Numbers, Houston, TX w/ Explosions In The Sky
Mar 8 @ Republic, New Orleans, LA w/ Explosions In The Sky
Mar 10 @ Crowbar, Ybor City, FL w/ Explosions In The Sky
Mar 12 @ The Alcazar, St. Augustine, FL w/ Explosions In The Sky
Mar 13 @ Lenny's Bar, Atlanta, GA w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 14 @ Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 15 @ Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 16 @ Starr Hill Music Hall, Charlottesville, VA w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 17 @ 9:30 Club, Washington, DC w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 18 @ Starlight Ballroom, Philadelphia, PA w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 20 @ Webster Hall, New York, NY w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 21 @ Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 23 @ Ukrainian Federation, Montreal, PQ w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 24 @ Opera House, Toronto, ON w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 26 @ St. Andrews Hall, Detroit, MI w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 28 @ Metro, Chicago, IL w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 30 @ Sokol Underground, Omaha, NE w/ Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase
Mar 31 @ The Bottleneck, Lawrence, KS w/ Explosions In The Sky

i'm a fan and stuff. new one guitar-less. post-ambient driftage. hearts break.
-- scott seward (skotro...), December 11th, 2006.

Answers
I like me the sound of this. (I got the last album in the Tower implosion.)
-- Ned Raggett (ne...), December 11th, 2006.

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dude is back in portland, and am psyched -- his live shows are pretty awesome especially when he collaborates with his g.f., who's an animator/ artiste.
-- Mike McGonigallll (yetimik...), December 11th, 2006.

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the new album is deep and strong. very lovely stuff.
-- scott seward (skotro...), December 11th, 2006.

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Ah cool, I couldn't tell if "hearts break" was +ve or -ve. I generally only play his stuff when I'm going to sleep but it is very purdy. Guitars something of a crucial element though so be interesting to hear this new direction.
-- ledge (tomdotledge...), December 11th, 2006.

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oh yeah, sorry, hearts break meant sounds sad.
-- scott seward (skotro...), December 11th, 2006.

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i guess a lot of his stuff is pretty melancholy though.
-- scott seward (skotro...), December 11th, 2006.

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new one is all strings, piano, keyboard, brass.
-- scott seward (skotro...), December 11th, 2006.

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Wow. Clean? FX pedalled?
-- ledge (tomdotledge...), December 11th, 2006.

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there are fx. dude is an eno fan, right? and some stuff - like solo piano - that sounds pretty straight up. sounds like it took awhile to make! i need to listen more though. i still love that solo piano thing he put out so much. maybe even the most.
-- scott seward (skotro...), December 11th, 2006.

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"Look ma, no guitars!"
Yeah this is very good news, I'm glad to hear he went that route.

Maybe I should drive down to Portland sometime and see him play.

-- Bimbler (Bimble87...), December 12th, 2006.

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When's it out? On Temporary Residence still?
-- matt2 (iloveokra...), December 12th, 2006.

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yah, temp res, but i don't know when it's out. maybe their website says?
-- scott seward (skotro...), December 12th, 2006.

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this thread inspired me to put on his last album again last night while reading before sleep. beautiful beautiful stuff. i'm looking forward to seeing where he goes with this.
-- hm (mi...), December 12th, 2006.

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my favorite part about eluvium is the noizy fx he uses. maybe i just don't listen to enough ambient stuff like this, but i haven't ever heard another band that manages to make noise so pretty
-- hm (mi...), December 12th, 2006.

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Uh.

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), December 12th, 2006.

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never heard that. i know. :/
-- hm (mi...), December 12th, 2006.

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If you go to eluvium.net it just says in February there will be a new album, new website and new tour.
-- Bimbler (Bimble87...), December 13th, 2006.

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that mbv album is a good one, worth the download
-- step hen faps (curtis.stephen...), December 13th, 2006.

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This is nice! Maybe a little cheesy at times, but lovely at others. And I'm only listening through laptop speakers, too.
-- toby (tobyge...), December 13th, 2006.

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Is quite nice, need to hear it more. With the strings & horns some of it is quite Stars of the Lid, actually. When he pulls out the piano I get flashes of Windham Hill.
-- MarkRichardson (mark-...), December 13th, 2006.
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Just to combine the old bits with the older/new bits.

Now more enthusiastic about ordering the new cd, with the "deep and strong", "hearts break" description. Will also add the first cd and the EP into the order, and complete the set.

OK I was super wary of this but I surrender. It's really good and I was wrong.

You have come to the light.

dude is talented.

Copia seriously needs to be the soundtrack to the next David Gordon Green film.

I'm talking about Copia, I haven't heard anything else. I made the same assumption with Colleen, that this would be more polite and nice but slightly dull ambidrone when in fact there is an awful lot going on here.

xp

it is all about 'indoor swimming at the space station'

so, all I've ever heard is the jesu split. how does that compare to the rest of the catalog? found it a little boring, honestly (both sides)... but I can't say I was really giving it optimal attention either.

gotta say that this thread has piqued my interest in the older stuff.

Has anyone else heard the split LP with Jesu? I think his side is better than a lot of Copia. It incorporates the piano in more subtle ways.

Late props for Copia. Eluvium's best album IMHO. Really swaying beginning and ending with a more tripped out middle portion.

Can't find the Eluvium/Jesu split. :(

Later props for that Travels In Constants Vol. 20 EP, "Behind Your Trouble", which is one 33 minute track. Particularly fuzzy at times, that one.

Get the split LP more for the Jesu stuff. "Conqueror" is a bit boring, and I think Jesu are a lot more interesting when they try to imitate NIN.

"Packaged in a hardbound cloth-cover book, the set will include every Eluvium album and EP on vinyl for the very first time ever! Pressed on 100% virgin black vinyl, and bursting at the seams with exquisite new artwork, the set will also include a fold-out poster and removable library card. Oft-rumored since early last year, this is easily the most laborious and expensive production we've ever worked on. And it's been worth every minute and ever dime! Strictly limited to 1,000 copies, this will be available October 1 for pre-order, and will be priced at around $100 plus shipping."

http://www.temporaryresidence.com/

Speaking of Eluvium vinyl, Matthew Robert Cooper (aka Mr. Eluvium) has just released a new vinyl-only album on Gaarden Records. Limited to just 2,000 copies, 'Miniatures' features nine short suites that play out sort of like skeletons (or ghosts) of Eluvium songs. It's quite beautiful, and available now.

I would really like that Temp Res thing, but can't justify it really (and I'm not that much of a vinyl fetishist).

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/TRR163_Eluvium_HI-RES.jpg

anyone heard this yet? i'm really liking this, maybe moreso than the last album. i'm glad he restricts his singing to just a few tracks here and there though

Picked up the new album Similes yesterday on release day and I'm enjoying it so far. Really pushes kind of the same buttons as his previous work, not a big step forward aside from the vocals added. Anyway, good album if not spectacular. Reminds me of M83 but without all the wide-eyed, childlike wonder of those tunes, more like the morning after, reflective, hungover type of calmness, but still with a hint of widescreen awe. Hearing lots of Eno influence as well, of course.

this is the first eluvium album i've heard, and tho i actually like the vocals i feel a bit gypped. it has a very small-scale feel despite being coated in kilometer-thick reverb, which is nice and cozy.

kinda disappointed on first listen, the vocals really draw the attention away from all the other details, but neither his voice or lyrics are strong enough to merit it.

I played one of the piano bits on Copia to some friends and they said it was twee and like Regina Spektor :/

I've been playing 'Similes' regularly since getting it last week. It's great. I was sceptical about the vocals beforehand but they're not too intrustive or terrible. I'm a big fan of Eluvium in general. I figure that 'Talk Among Trees' is still my favourite though.

does this have anything as good as 'indoor swimming at the space station'

It's definitely more similar to 'Copia' musically than anything else in his catalogue. If you like 'Copia' and don't immediately shudder at the thought of vocals in an Eluvium song then you will probably find a lot to like. Been perfect bedtime music for me.

I'm getting increasingly tired of indie electronica records that just go straight for out and out prettiness and don't display any interest in doing anything else. This seemed really nice on the first three plays and then as soon as I stopped listening I realised I couldn't remember anything about it.

It seems to trot out the most obvious routes to prettiness as well, twinkly noises, a bit of shoegaze, shimmering textures, feeling a bit wistful and sad. It's lazy more than anything else.

Fair enough criticism. Eluvium is one of those artists I'm a little unobjective about due to being a such a fan of his earlier work. I'll listen to pretty much anything he releases and enjoy it. That does mean I'll overlook aspects I'd be more critical of in other music. As for 'Similies', sure, there's nothing groundbreaking going on and it is I suppose open to claims of prettiness of prettisness' sake. Nonetheless, with an artist like Eluvium who operates within a relatively narrow genre (self-imposed I admit) the new album has a few forward moving or risky steps. Especially the vocals of course. I though they'd be the end of my Eluvium love when I heard about them. Not that they're particularly great or anything but I'm surprised that they don't detract from the music in the way I'd expected.

just listening to similies...def not going to win any new converts...perhaps more, um, pop ambient i guess? and not just cos of the introduction of voice, something about the arrangements feels more commercial (not necessarily a bad thing), like movie soundtracks. i suppose that makes it feel less distinct, but it is still p obv eluvium's style

soundtrack to some indie movie coming out on Temp Res.

http://temporaryresidence.com/descriptions/trr191.php

awww Bimble

i have seen Cooper live twice, own all his stuff (incl. the TempRes vinyl box - probably the most beautiful music release i own & the one music thing i would grab in a fire), and will follow him to the ends of the earth. as far as i am concerned, he can do no wrong.

all that said, he is apparently "reintroducing" himself as Martin Eden, and here is a song:

http://www.xlr8r.com/mp3/2012/07/worker

which, surprise, i really like - especially the second half, once the wobbly noise kicks in.

first two tracks we've heard from the upcoming album sound amazing and beautiful and they are a reminder that, while his experimentation w/ vocals on Similes and his electro stuff as Martin Eden were just fine, there is no one better than this guy at doing what this guy does best.

https://soundcloud.com/temporary-residence-ltd-1/eluvium-dont-get-any-closer
https://soundcloud.com/temporary-residence-ltd-1/eluvium-envenom-mettle

Mmmm ... well, I guess I might be the only person 'round here who feels very strongly about Matthew Cooper's music, judging from the activity on this thread, but his new collaboration with one of the Explosions In The Sky dudes is gorgeous:

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/23/291420148/first-listen-inventions-inventions

I thought the last Eluvium record was a stunner, but the stream of Inventions left me a little cold. I've never been an Explosions dude, though, so every time it veers that direction I get disappointed.

someone uploaded the entire Life Through Bombardment box set to YouTube ... 3 hours and 44 minutes, covers most of the Eluvium catalog:

http://youtu.be/_CkIpC_bIwo

new album is stunning, sky is blue, water is wet

cosign

I'd never heard this guy's stuff before, picked up Talk Amongst the Trees on a whim this weekend and really dig it.

Makes me smile when I search up an old thread and see it's a Bimble one.

I got off the bus with this guy (fourteen years ago!) when he started singing. Just listened to his new one from last year, very promising, and no singing.

'seeing you off the edges' hits so hard.