Matthew Robert Cooper
Miniatures

THE REVIEW

Outside, it's Night; and time has stopped.

Matthew Cooper is a young American musician and composer, mastermind of the solo piano/ambient project Eluvium. In 2008, he released an album not under the name Eluvium but as Matthew Robert Cooper, even though the material within is not very different from what he publishes as Eluvium. Matthew himself explains the reason for this decision: «This is not far from something Eluvium would release, but since I began writing them, I felt that they were somehow disconnected from Eluvium, perhaps a different personality took shape. Thus, the use of a different name. This work is very dear to me». Here are nine miniatures, nine compositions teetering between a rarefied and evocative ambient and the emotion of a piano. Each miniature is an elegant, little gem that we must contemplate.

The time stops. Outside it is night and my gaze rests on the reality that surrounds me, while my perceptions change, and I sink into a limbo where everything is still, immobile. Muffled ambient textures envelop me, making everything around me seem distant, futile, as if surrounded by an opaque curtain. Then the piano notes seep into my mind, into my heart. Yes, time has stopped, but it is precisely when everything is silent and suspended that one finds oneself conversing with one's own ghosts. And this soundtrack of introspection continues, incessant. I reach the point where the notes within it pierce me; the flow of the piano and the cry of the organ seem like stabs, deep and indelible and at the same time sweet and gentle. And the heart cries, cries, while outside it is night and everything is still. There seems to be, now, an appearance of relief, a sweet cradling, a slight lifting and swaying. Close your eyes. Do not think about Time. The sun is rising, the world is awakening, time resumes its flow, as it always has and always will.

I listened to these miniatures, let them into me, between flesh and mind, and that morning the dawn caressed my face marked by a tear.