The Artefact EP is the second collaborative release from electronic producer Max Cooper and pianist Tom Hodge and in short, it is stunning.
Opening with the melancholic Remnants, Hodge's piano work is sublime. Layer upon layer of gently nurtured melodies build up atop Cooper's intricately navigated and highly complex percussive electronics. The result is cinematic, emotive and beautiful - and delivers on the song's ambition to recreate the sense of objects and sounds that can trigger an emotional response. Those remnants that pull the emotion right out of you, either catching you unaware when you least expect it or used when we have an instinctive need to reminisce and to feel just a bit... More.
Teotihuacan Part 2 is based on field recordings taken from Cooper’s 2012 visit to the pyramids of Teotihuacan - a culture he describes as "destroyed and its knowledge lost, replaced with a rebuilt, but still beautiful, tourist trap". Audio for a storm whipping through the city is processed and used within the track, and the piece recreates a sad sense of loss.
Finally, on Resonant Expanse, Cooper edits, tweaks and heavily manipulates Hodge's piano work into a slowly building and wholly electronic piece. Distorted melodies build and loop to create something tougher but equally emotive.
Artefact successfully delivers instrumental electronic music with beauty and surprising emotional complexity.
Artefact is out through FIELDS on Monday. Download free bonus track Teotihuacan Part 1 from MaxCooper.net now. Check out a preview of Remnants below: