Max Cooper: Momentum
There’s a particular quote we like about Max Cooper’s music, by DUMMY magazine – that Cooper “wants you to dance and cry simultaneously, and will probably succeed in doing so”. With a style that sweeps from lush emotion to pumelling, abrasive noise, Cooper’s productions have included a “4D sound” performance, remixes of artists from Michael Nyman to Hot Chip, MMOTHS to Nils Frahm, an incredibly successful experimental soundscape inspired by the British Museum, and a string of 21 video commissions that turn scientific and cultural concepts into visual art.
Once a genetics researcher and PhD at University College, London, Cooper’s calling has been to fuse the gospel of science and rationality with the excess and exuberance of the most creative electronic music. Now named a Resident Advisor top 20 live act, he’s also been described by XLR8R as having “a quiet elegance unique to the genre” and by Earmilk as “a master at blending blissed-out, lightweight textures with moments of heavy darkness”.
Max will use the Momentum funding to manufacture, market and release three singles and his debut album in 2014, to stage the first-ever shows of the 4D sound show to London (and hopefully other parts of the UK), and to help expand his existing club and festival show.
Max Cooper told us:
“The Momentum Fund makes such a difference when you’re trying to bring amazing experimental (and expensive!) technology like the 4d sound show to the UK. I don’t make music that really sits on a major label, so a grant like Momentum makes it possible to do my own thing, but do it on a scale where it can really reach people.”