When I was touring in Mexico, I was lucky enough to have some days off during a visit to Mexico City, and took a trip to a nearby Toltec/Aztec Pyramid site called Teotihuacan. It's a beautiful place, but when I asked about its history I was told that most of the knowledge and culture of the people who built it was lost, with the arrival of the Europeans. Now it's turned into a rebuilt money making tourist trap, with the loss of its real meaning.

I recorded the space and sounds there with binaural mics, so I could try and capture some of the feeling of it, including a storm which came in, and then I wrote a strings part inspired by the feelings of the visit there. Tom Hodge brought the piece to life by playing a piano part in addition, and I loved the piano so much I decided to make two parts, the first with the piano only, combined with the binaural recordings and a randomising delay feedback network, and the second part with the strings. The first part of Teotihuacan is available exclusively from the free download Quotient Series, and the second part will be coming on the Artefact EP in April.

preorder available - www.smarturl.it/ArtefactEP‏

FREE DOWNLOAD HERE

Teotihuacan - Part 1 - with Tom Hodge - Quotient 4/6

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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.

He holds a PhD in computational biology at the same time as being the first contemporary electronic musician to perform at the ancient Acropolis theatre in Athens and one of the first clutch of musicians to produce in Dolby Atmos.

Cooper has enquired for over 15 years through music, collaborations, and his label Mesh, to explore the intersections between the arts and sciences with installations, performances, immersive experiences, online media, music videos and live events.  Anchored throughout is his emotive approach, connecting how ideas and forms feel, in a manner accessible to us all. 
 
As an artist synonymous with the evolution of club culture, Cooper honed his craft as a DJ with a 10 year residency at legendary Midlands techno event Firefly where he formed a foundational relationship with Architecture Social Club, with whom he still collaborates on extravagant immersive installations.

"I want to encourage the acceptance of electronic music as an art form like any other. Bringing electronic music and abstract audio-visual projects into concert halls, museums and galleries is liberating - the art world opens up doors to communicate in ways that aren’t possible elsewhere."
  
Pivoting from computational biology to electronic music might not seem like the most natural career transition, but for Cooper the commonalities are obvious:
 
"In both fields, you're in a sense, free. Free from the limits of living systems, free from the limits of corporeal sound. The only constraints are in your mind."

www.maxcooper.net 

Contacts:
Management: James Palmer-Bullock, The Wild Seeds - james@thewildseeds.com 
Label: Anthony Faulkner, Mesh – anthony@thewildseeds.com 
PR: Neil Bainbridge, Neighbourhood PR - neil@nbhd-group.com 
Radio: Matthew Maxey, Enganche - matthew@enganche.co.uk

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