Ascent EP by Max Cooper

The next instalment from Max Cooper's audio-visual project ‘Unspoken Words’ on Mesh. The ‘Ascent’ single features the original and an experimental drum and bass cut rework giving a nod to his formative years.

Speaking of the original track, Max explains, "I was trying to capture the uncapturable idea of transcendence with ‘Ascent’. It needed to ascend further than anything I had made before.”

“‘Ascent’ was one of the most important tracks from the album for me, because I was able to capture some really raw feeling relating to some intense physical spaces - specifically St Michielskerk in Leuven, and Herodes Atticus Theatre at the Acropolis in Athens. The music was my attempt to create a transcendental experience fitting these spaces, and the visual followed the same theme via mathematics, using simulations of ever increasing spatial dimensions, with the digits of a transcendental number mapped to the surfaces in these ‘ascending’ spaces.”

The montage of genres enveloped within the title of Max Cooper’s “Elysian Field mix” has created something rewardingly different yet automatically recognisable though Cooper’s signature sound and motifs. “I worked on the mix solidly for weeks to get the balance the best I could, and allow the warm harmonies to come through as well as enough snap in the drums. I also jammed over the chord sequence with some high frequency melodic elements and manipulations of the percussion to make it as rich with structure as I could.”

The accompanying video to ‘Ascent’ was created by bio-mathematician and scientist Martin Kryzwinski from Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, whose work has featured in New York Times and Wired. Channelling two techniques that the pair both discussed: An ascent into spatial dimensionality combined with mapping of the digits of a transcendental number. Cooper explains, "We are used to living in 3-dimensions of space, but we can construct models of worlds in whatever number of spatial dimensions we want."

The single package is released this Thursday 20th October ahead of Max’s headline show at O2 Academy Brixton, with special guests LTJ Bukem, Nabihah Iqbal and upsammy, and 3 sets from Max himself: 3D/AV presented in L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound, an Ambient live set, and a DJ set - a notable hard-hitting lineup making best use of the extended late-licence till 4am.

Max Cooper is an electronic composer, multi-disciplinary artist, music label founder and former scientist who has carved out a unique space in music and visual art.

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https://maxcooper.net/

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