Matthew Cooper has been making gorgeous ambient post rock for almost a decade under the Eluvium moniker.
Like Mum or Sigur Ros, Cooper has that gift of taking ethereal minimalism and by sheer force of will alone, giving a single note real emotional heft. With Eluvium, Cooper would also investigate solo piano in beguiling ways. He created a sonic landscape that although experimental was undeniably Eluvium whenever you heard it.
10 years on, Cooper has created a new moniker through which to explore sampled sound, loops, and whirs — Martin Eden.
On his first record as Martin Eden, Cooper has hung up his vocalist/songwriter cap and focused on “simply” engineering layers of sound. The full length album, “Dedicate Function” is a stunner. It is a cleverly sincere nod to classic Ambient works by Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, and Boards of Canada but has a unique perspective that is all it’s own.
Whether you are familiar with Cooper’s previous incarnation or not, Martin Eden is a brilliant re-imagining of self and Dedicate Function is a beautifully emotive work.