By Geoff Topley
Matthew Cooper, aka Eluvium, based in Portland, Oregon has been presenting us with fine electronic instrumental music for a good few years now. With Nightmare Ending, a sprawling 2 CD, 80 minute opus, he takes us on a journey of incredible and beautifully arranged modern symphonies. The label releasing his music is the tremendous Temporary Residence Limited, who are also responsible for bringing Mono records into the world. I cannot thank the people behind this label enough for ensuring that this music is heard. For it needs to be heard. This is music.
I'd never heard of Eluvium before until I ventured down to Dublin to see Explosions in the Sky around the release of All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone. Cooper had just released Copia, and had done a remix of an Explosions track for their bonus CD. As the support that night, a solo figure sat behind a laptop, guitar in hand, he was creating these incredible electro soundscapes with minimal effort. I was dabbling in one-man-show-guitar-electronica myself at the time and was in my element watching this guy perform.
Six years later, having missed out on all his releases since (shame on me), it was with trepidation that I selected Nightmare Ending to review. Twitter was going apoplectic with encouraging snippets of information regarding how good it is. The weight of expectation was making it a long wait to get the preview copy.
On first listen, my immediate thoughts were along the lines of "How do you begin to do explain in mere words how good this is?". Repeated listens only made it worse as each track wound its way out of the speakers and took me to other places, where words matter not. The weight of everyday life reduced to dust.
...and I'm still finding it hard to transcribe into words. Usually, my reviews will look closely at the individual tracks of an album, a closer inspection of the highs and (any) lows will be considered. The enormity of Nightmare Ending and its 14 tracks, the very fact that each and every one is as good as the next, renders this sort of analysis almost irrelevant. But it's my duty to provide you with some informative appraisal.
As a way of introduction, opener 'Don't Get Any Closer' winds up on a zither-eal drone, waves of warm stringed chords wash over, plaintive piano winds its way through the track before a heaving organ completes the mix. Reminiscent of composer Angelo Badalamenti and his signature arrangements, Eluvium makes modern soundtracks for unmade films. 'Unknown Variation' begins with the chatter of static, echoed clatter like some outer space train station can be heard, synth chords eerily enhance the backdrop and the whole thing ends in a brilliant warped guitar drone that Kevin Shields would be proud of.
'Caroling' is the best of many short piano-only tracks, uplifting but yet full of mourning. 'Chime' continues this theme, only this time the piano is of the bar saloon variety, processed through an echo chamber; out of this world. Centrepiece 8-minute epic 'Rain Gently' is all lush chords and swooning guitars, the chord progression borrowed from a certain 90s pop hit.
Ultimate highlight has to be the incredible 'Covered In Writing', airy strings float in the cloud filled sky, it's such a tragic tune, but at the same time incredibly uplifting. The album ends with 'Happiness', book ending the set with another hymnal organ piece, this time featuring the vocals of Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo.
I'm really not surprised at all about the amount of praise that's being given regarding Nightmare Ending. This album should be prescribed on the NHS as a relaxant medication. Actually, no, it should just be made compulsory listening for everyone, the world would be a better place.
