With his Eluvium project, Matthew Robert Cooper has constantly fluctuated between minimalism and opulence: Ambient and modern composition have never been as beautiful, as precise, as wonderfully paired as on his records in recent years. For his new album »(Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality«, Cooper had to change, however. Pain in his arm was troubling him. The solution: technology. Cooper used automation and algorithms for song writing, and virtual meetings with orchestras and other musicians for recording. Which is not an end in itself on »(Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality«. Rather, Cooper makes his pieces even more spherical, even more melancholic.
The vocals on »Void Manifest« sound like chants from an ethereal world, while strings and synthesisers lurch between ambient, drone and elegance. »Clockwork Fables« features a pared-down piano melody, whereas »(Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality« is a deep album, a heavy album overall. No one builds pathos and melancholy into their sound like Cooper, no one paints such complex worlds, such artful elegance, such bittersweet pain with so few notes. An album about departure and loneliness. A record like only Eluvium can write and compose. A soundtrack to your own life. From start to finish.
