by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Max Cooper is a fully fledged multimedia artist these days, telling stories through his increasingly powerful music and a well chosen suite of video collaborations.

Unspoken Words is described as his most powerful and personal album to date, a substantial body of work ‘leading the listener through experiences of escapism and connection with personal stories of reflection, acceptance, grappling, idealism and rejection.’

Cooper draws on his own personal experiences, relating his own mental health in musical terms. Speaking about the writing process, he described how he has tried to put as much feeling and form into the album as possible – the unspoken words – dealing with thoughts that are by turns ‘beautiful, intense, abrasive, messy and baffling’.

The story is told through 13 short films, and mixed in Dolby Atmos.

What’s the music like?

Cooper has a recognisable style these days, but not one that pins him down to a single tempo or pattern. Instead, his music grows ever more personal and meaningful, drawing from Unspoken Words feelings of greater intensity than ever before.

Not all of this music is comfortable or ambient, and there is a strongly descriptive thread running through the album of over-stimulation – that is, too many signals and interactions for the brain to process in one go. Solace In Structure is especially frenetic, processing a lot of signal activity in its five minutes, while Symphony In Acid is more difficult as a close-up encounter. Often these challenges are followed by softer tracks with greater padding, as in Small Window On The Cosmos, where Cooper pans out to consider the bigger picture.

When the awesome potential of this music is let loose, as it is on Ascent, the outcome is thrilling, suggesting that one day Cooper really should write for orchestral forces, for he marshals his equipment with a musical mind that always thinks on the large scale.

Does it all work?

Yes – but not all encounters with Max Cooper’s music are easy or straightforward on this album. Questions are asked – not all of them comfortable – and doubts are raised.

Is it recommended?

Having said the above, Unspoken Words can be recommended as a fiercely relevant piece of work. Anyone interested in the relationship between music and mental health will find an encounter with Max Cooper’s latest to be extremely worthwhile.

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

After a successful stint with John Digweed’s Bedrock label, Greek producer Stelios Vassiloudis takes a slight shift to Balance Music for his first full length ambient album.

What’s the music like?

Equal parts reassuring and reviving, All Else Fails is not an admission of defeat – far from it. From the opening notes it soothes the fevered brow with reassuring harmonies, light textures and comforting voices. There is still enough tension here though, the musical components woven in together and often bouncing off each other.

Vassiloudis gets a very satisfying ebb and flow, too – while Ashes focuses more on percussion, beneath a swaying motif, Mother has a steadier beat and the added richness of a cimbalom. Neon Dream is ushered in by the chirping of house sparrows before establishing a solid rhythmic presence

The rhythmic profiles are continually inventive, especially the easy but subtly funky five-beat loop for White Cells. Avissos is expansive, airy and ambient for its title, the sonorities of the elbow and a wordless choir effect casting a mysterious spell. Womb, by contrast, has a heavily treated, automated voice. As the album progresses to the compositions become more substantial, heading for the finely constructed album track, where shards of rhythm back slower moving background thoughts. There is brief threat from the slightly ominous ticking of the clock at the start of Time To Die, but the track settles into an extended meditation.

Does it all work?

Yes. Vassiloudos makes it all sound very easy and instinctive, yet on closer inspection there is a lot going on here. All the elements are carefully and cleverly combined to make a satisfying and extremely comforting whole.

Is it recommended?

It is. All Else Fails is a more ambient complement to Vassiloudis’ debut album from 2011, It Is What It Is, but shows the assurance of experience, finding a winning combination of exploration and familiarity. Warmly recommended.