Acclaimed musician, sound designer and creative Max Cooper announces his first new music of 2023.
As he continues to cut a unique and noteworthy path, the intensely explorative Motif EP see’s the London based audio-visual artist breathe impressive life in multiple directions, and requests our own imagination to see the full picture.
Released on his own Mesh platform, Motif EP is composed by a producer capable of dismantling genres to render them brighter, bolder and ultimately more personal, demonstrating the rich purity of his craft and how his music can be expressed as both a flagrant and elegant listening experience at once.
The first single “Vertebrae / Forgotten Places” featuring Australian singer/songwriter Kathrin deBoer, also known for fronting electro-soul outfit Belleruche demonstrating remarkable control and detail in her haunting voice set amidst a transfixing blend of glitchy electronica and uncompromising drum and bass.
While the presence of integrated thinking around releasing music has long distinguished Max Cooper, it is the notion of performance and entertainment grafted into his style which really admits Max to charge into new territory.
A collection of his influences and a set of motifs from a life in electronic music, Motif EP is equipped with purpose and emotional intimacy. Far from a dark moment of introspection but a diverse collection of audio-visual ideas, each playing a particular role in his live shows which traverse all of his musical passions combined with being alive at this time; immersed in shared history and experience.
Six impressively contemplative and powerful songs that oscillate between Max’s calm, heartfelt reminiscences and youthful remnants of 90’s rave, and a playful precision of dancefloor spirit as he incorporates the sounds of breakbeat, drum and bass and techno.
Reassuringly direct and familiar, fans will recognise signature sound motifs from over a decade of producing, performing and DJing. But more distinctively, Cooper seems disinterested in solely capturing the present and is more concerned with investigating his music’s history and investing in crafting its future.
“The mixture of genres on this record might make more sense looking at my life in electronic music. Beginning in the 90’s with an upbringing on classic synth pop and classical music, then my first tape “Prodigy Experience”, and first night out at their Breathe Tour ahead of a delve deep into the Trance, Techno and remnants of Rave of the late 90’s in Northern Ireland and Ibiza. I then moved to Nottingham in ‘99 and went to my first Drum and Bass night at the Marcus Garvey Ballroom, after which I started integrating those records into my collection”
Max Cooper
Playing on the idea of motifs, the cover art was created by Mykola Haleta and features the graphic artist’s distinctive textile patterning design.
There is a fresh utilitarian layer to the new EP as it experiments with the interplay between rolled melodies that form a loose web of pensive sound around a more aggressive club-driven production and performance-led frequencies.
Whether serving as an empathetic foil to his new immersive 3D/AV shows or a reinterpretation of his own musical education, Max Cooper’s bold electronic compositions feel excited and increasingly like part of a longer, more timeless story.