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Eluvium, "Talk Amongst the Trees"
Eluvium differs from his fellow electronically-damaged guitar virtuosos(Fennesz, Remedios, et alii) by his insistence on repetition. He findsa hook and sticks with it, unapologetically and uncompromisingly. Thisisn't to say that Matthew Cooper's songs sound repetitive. There can berepetition without attaching the stigma of repetitive dreariness.
Temporary Residence Limited
Infact, Cooper has shown his ability to change dramatically not onlywithin songs but between albums. Whereas last year's An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death was a collection of crisp and clean piano pieces, Cooper's first album Lambent Material was a sonically dense patchwork of melody and static. Talk Amongst the Trees sounds much closer to Eluvium's debut album. But where Lambent Materialexplored the submarine, this album is an extended rumination on allthings celestial, ethereal, and airy. Song titles alone suggest part ofthis motif. "New Animals From the Air" starts the album with fivedistinct and critical layers of sounds all criss-crossing each otherand interweaving. There are echoes, reverberations, and ellipticaloverlaps. "Show Us Our Homes" looks up to the sky from the perspectiveof the ground instead of the suspension and flying in the previoussong. It is a calmer and more pensive affair, like looking up at cloudsor stars lying on your back. In harmony with the motif, "Calm of theCast-Light Cloud" is precisely what the inside of a cloud would soundlike, no more and no less. The centerpiece of the album is "Taken," aseventeen-minute expanse of pure altocumulus beauty. If the gods weretruly just, this song ought to have scored Nintendo's Kid Icarusgame. But since the game and the song are separated by about eighteenyears, I have my doubts regarding justice in this world. "Taken" is oneof the most narcotically dulcet songs ever put to ones and zeros. Youwant the song to continue interminably because everything about itseems right. Since it repeats a twenty-second melody consistently forseventeen minutes, it also has the effect of elongating and warpingtime, making the song seem longer than it is and giving the illusionthat you have been granted your wish for the song's interminability.The closer on the album is called "One" and it chimes equally withwindswept tones and oceanic resonances. A marriage of the aquatic andthe ethereal culminates in this song. The spectral power of Eluvium isall too crystal clear in Talk Amongst the Trees and you get thesense that the talk alluded to in the title is no more than the windrushing through weary boughs and leaves, giving form to what isessentially formless. This album simply floats and it is all butimpossible not to hover along with it.
Temporary Residence Limited
Infact, Cooper has shown his ability to change dramatically not onlywithin songs but between albums. Whereas last year's An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death was a collection of crisp and clean piano pieces, Cooper's first album Lambent Material was a sonically dense patchwork of melody and static. Talk Amongst the Trees sounds much closer to Eluvium's debut album. But where Lambent Materialexplored the submarine, this album is an extended rumination on allthings celestial, ethereal, and airy. Song titles alone suggest part ofthis motif. "New Animals From the Air" starts the album with fivedistinct and critical layers of sounds all criss-crossing each otherand interweaving. There are echoes, reverberations, and ellipticaloverlaps. "Show Us Our Homes" looks up to the sky from the perspectiveof the ground instead of the suspension and flying in the previoussong. It is a calmer and more pensive affair, like looking up at cloudsor stars lying on your back. In harmony with the motif, "Calm of theCast-Light Cloud" is precisely what the inside of a cloud would soundlike, no more and no less. The centerpiece of the album is "Taken," aseventeen-minute expanse of pure altocumulus beauty. If the gods weretruly just, this song ought to have scored Nintendo's Kid Icarusgame. But since the game and the song are separated by about eighteenyears, I have my doubts regarding justice in this world. "Taken" is oneof the most narcotically dulcet songs ever put to ones and zeros. Youwant the song to continue interminably because everything about itseems right. Since it repeats a twenty-second melody consistently forseventeen minutes, it also has the effect of elongating and warpingtime, making the song seem longer than it is and giving the illusionthat you have been granted your wish for the song's interminability.The closer on the album is called "One" and it chimes equally withwindswept tones and oceanic resonances. A marriage of the aquatic andthe ethereal culminates in this song. The spectral power of Eluvium isall too crystal clear in Talk Amongst the Trees and you get thesense that the talk alluded to in the title is no more than the windrushing through weary boughs and leaves, giving form to what isessentially formless. This album simply floats and it is all butimpossible not to hover along with it.
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