Telefon Tel Aviv on DeBaser: reviews, bio, and essential works

The Profile

Telefon Tel Aviv is an American electronic act formed in 1999 in New Orleans by Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper. The duo became known for intricate, emotive IDM/ambient-glitch. After Cooper’s death in 2009, the project paused; Eustis revived it in 2019 with Dreams Are Not Enough. Eustis has also worked with Nine Inch Nails and Puscifer and released music as Sons of Magdalene.

Formed in New Orleans, later based in Chicago; early releases on Hefty Records; Dreams Are Not Enough released by Ghostly International in 2019; Charles Cooper died on January 22, 2009; Joshua Eustis has collaborated with Nine Inch Nails and Puscifer and runs the solo project Sons of Magdalene.

Three reviews trace Telefon Tel Aviv’s arc from the glitchy elegance of Fahrenheit Fair Enough to the soul-tinged turns of Map of What Is Effortless and the dark return of Dreams Are Not Enough. The tone is affectionate and reflective, often mourning Charles Cooper while praising Joshua Eustis’s craft. Genres cited include IDM, ambient, glitch, deconstructed R&B, and hints of shoegaze. Overall sentiment is strongly positive.

Notable Quotes

❝ “I often dream of it: a younger version of myself, standing at the bottom of the ocean;

with arms up, mouth open, piercing eyes, I can't see, I can't breathe,

still as a rock in a water temple.”

❝ “‘Fahrenheit Fair Enough’ undoubtedly deserves a spot on the podium among the most interesting albums of 2001, despite bringing nothing new to electronic music (in the broadest sense of the term), but ‘only’ a collage of everything that the two eclectic (no other adjective fits better) artists thought of at the time.”

❝ “This album marks a definite change of direction for the New Orleans duo, Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper, who from experimental electronics à la Aphex Twin … move towards refined electronic rhythms.”