Customer Reviews

Copia (Dig)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I first picked up "Copia" by Eluvium, I wasn't immediately in love with it, but there was something about the sound in it that I could not remove myself from.

Over time, the album has grown in me and I've found myself playing it endlessly without even noticing. If you are a fan of movie scores, you will love it. But so will you if you enjoy the music of Stars of the Lid or Hammock. It's not ambient, it's not new age, it's not drone music: it's all of the above at the same time.

After giving it a few listens, it crept up to my list of best albums in 2007.

Amazingly soothing melodies, ambient, spacy and blissful without any of that nagging New Age vacuousness. My wife really enjoys this disc and she is vocally quite critical of the Fripp loops, Windy and Carl, Eno and other similar output from the same general genre. This has been on constant rotation in my car changer for over a month and I have no intention of pulling it out anytime soon.

Not knowing the meaning of the word, I decided to look it up.
The music contained within this disc perfectly coincides.
One can always trust matthew cooper to tag his releases with intriguing titles, to say the least.

This release is quite different from past eluvium releases. Gone are the glacial, atmospheric walls of guitar ambience. what we have here is a contemporary collection of pieces in relatively classical style, which is quite fresh, considering what else is going in the ambient world. Nearly all organic and orchestral instrumentation. songs are not as long (which I miss a bit), but this album is every bit as painstakingly beautiful as any eluvium release, just in a different manner. Not just "beautiful" in the sense of the annoying tag seemingly given to every record in the ambient/post rock genre, but this record contains truly transcedental beauty. Cooper's music always possesses a unique sense of honesty and meekness, making it instantly recognizable...despite it being nothing extremely groudbreaking or venturing into uncommon harmonic territory. this man is a master of tonal music. There is nothing "pretentionus" about this record. Pick up this record and be enlightened, comforted, and entranced by simplicity.

Eluvium is the project of Matthew Cooper, who has abandoned many of the conventional instruments used by bands and by him in the past. There is no guitar to be found on this instrumental epic, but varied brass, keyboards, piano, and stringed instruments fill the speakers with beautiful emotive brilliance. Copia is the result of a transformation for Eluvium, and it's not a bad thing.

"Amreik" begins the journey. Horns are beautifully arranged on top of some keyboard work that is subtle and ambient. The piece is moving and a grand entrance to the rest of the disc. "Indoor Swimming at the Space Station" sets off with soaring, vast soundscapes built on keys and strings. The mood is dark and solemn, perhaps like the emptiness of space. Piano is added for depth as the layers become complex and louder. One has the sense that the track is conveying a feeling of floating, endlessly floating. All that is bright and all that is beautiful is hidden deep within the vastness and melancholy tones of this track. A wind or brass instrument comes in to add texture over the piano and ambient bed of music. Eventually, ambient keys are left to communicate the emotion of the composition. Then, strange sounds fill the speakers as the song works its way to its 10:29 finish line.

"Seeing You Off the Edges" is seamlessly connected to the prior track. Soaring keyboards fill the speakers as walls of sound wash over the listener. The mood is somber and beautiful all at the same time. Moving and spacious, Matthew Cooper paints beautiful pictures with his music. "Prelude for Time Feelers" is a piano piece that is simple and elegant. Light synths come into the background ever so subtly to give depth to the stripped down pianos. Then, in a moment, the piano changes and a brass instrument accompanies the melody. Evoking days gone by and fond memories, this track brings cold fall days and snowy winter days by the fireplace to mind. "Requiem on Frankfort Ave." is introduced with a beautiful set of horns and violin. Patient and bold, the composition is breathtaking. This entire disc moves like a soundtrack to a grand movie or is akin to a neo-classical set of tracks with ambience in the backdrop.

"Radio Ballet" begins with bright piano. The entire song contains variations on the same melody and is entirely a piano piece. "(Intermission)" has clanking sounds with tiny moments of ambiance. It is brief, but it provides a direct insight into the purpose of the artist. It is certainly a disc that is epic and has movements akin to classical music. The second half of the disc begins with "After Nature." Bright keyboards fill the speakers with some strings bringing depth to the piece. This brief song leads into "Reciting the Airships." Piano leads to airy keys that blend to make perfect, soaring compositions. The emotive elements in all Cooper's tracks are brilliant and convey sadness, melancholy, and at the same time hope.

"Osinato" begins with organ rising in volume steadily. This has a brilliant ambient affect as horns join in to help build a wall of sound. This eventually comes down from its vast sound and fades into "Hymn #1." Rain fills the speakers with piano playing amidst the downpour. About half-way through, the piano drops out and then comes back in to ease the listener out of the track and into "Repose in Blue." Strings and keys create an under-layer that is accented with subtle variations. Horns rise in majestic style and grace. The track is patient and is punctuated with what sounds like fireworks. The finale is ringing in the end of the epic journey on which Cooper has taken the listener. Evoking ancient lands and the deepest emotions, Cooper brings his grand album to a close with excellence and perfection.

The new direction for Eluvium is breathtaking and simply impressive. Cooper has crafted a masterpiece that is ambient, deep, complex and meaningful.

I listen to a lot of ambient music, and this is a stunning, stunning album. It combines soaring ambience with piano led rhythms. The tracks vary in the extent to which these two components are balanced, with certain pieces sounding very much like the sort of ethereal bliss found on 'Talk Amongst The Trees', and others moving more towards classical piano compositions. As a result, this album must be consumed in its entirety. While certain parts work alone, it is the whole that really is greater here. Highly reccommended.

Matthew Cooper has an undeniable gift of creating meditative, atmospheric soundscapes. This is my first taste of Eluvium and I am pleased. This CD is gentle and wispy and very minimal (looking at it musically). If you appreciate patient music and have an open mind, this one is for you!

From the very first track, which greets you with orchestral woodwinds, we are immediately aware that this will be a novel stroll along the ambient boulevards of modern classical landscape. Matthew Cooper entrusts his fifth full length release to his home label, Temporary Residence Limited, which has already treated the post-rock and shoegazer palettes with bands like Mono, Explosions In The Sky, and Tarentel. Residing in Portland, Cooper's compositions have often been placed amongst the likes of Brian Eno, Christian Fennesz, and (his personal favorite) Max Richter. The minor harmonic progression of strings, organ and piano (that replace previously chosen guitars), display Cooper's ability to drift among the choice of instrumentation and exercise his contemporary and classically trained ear. Copia is an album saturated with emotion; and its ability to transfer that complex mental state of feelings through music is what makes this album one of the top accomplishments of the year.

Amidst all the havoc of jarringly life changing modern events, Eluvium's Copia sets out to change your life subtly. Instead of using a standard musical stranglehold, Copia lulls you into its grasps with the most beautiful orchestrations you have ever heard. Eluvium is the alias of modern composer Matthew Cooper of Portland, Oregon. Cooper takes the beauty of a picture perfect scene of Oregon's lush hills clouded with mist and translates the image into a gorgeous wave of sound. I say wave because the music literally washes over you until you are completely submerged in all things Eluvium. Copia is Cooper's fourth album and follows in combining slow melodic drones with sprinkles of classical piano and string arrangements. The effect is a slow moving, contemplative listen that, similar to his previous releases, is the type of backdrop that can inspire revelations on the true nature of beauty in sound. Cooper does ride close to the edge on this release however as the last half begins to become monotonous, a first for Cooper. It is a difficult trapping to avoid when delving into ambient washes. In the end, despite some small battles, Copia is triumphant in transporting you to where you need to be.

I bought this album because of one song. I felt I would find other great songs on here as well. I was right. While many of the songs are good. Half of them are great i.e. Radio Ballet, Swimming on the Space Station... From I've heard from this guy, this album seems to have the best songs. I'm going to have to try some other albums as well.

On a side note. I live in WNY and this was being shipped from PA with 2 day shipping through amazon. For some reason it went down to Florida on a week and a half journey. I'm not complaining but it's just strange. I've been having a lot of these instances lately with amazon 2 day shipping, after years of being able to set your watch to it.

If you are into deep Godly music, you will certainly enjoy this. Great for exploring the inner realm of consciousness.