If any of you have happened to find yourself in the mid-Atlantic states during the past two months, odds are you've been hiding indoors avoiding the rain. Subsequently, you might have found yourself picking up that book you've told everyone you've read but never even got past Chapter 2. I've been spending my rainy days discovering Eluvium, and his excellent debut release, Lambent Material.
Matthew Cooper (aka Eluvium) might be making the perfect rainy day music. Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Lambent Material conjures up sanctuary and a warm place on a cold night. All instrumental and filled with tone and drone, the album's influences are definitely Eno, possibly Mogwai's more drone-y moments, some Keith Fullerton Whitman and even a little Sigur Ros in places. Building on these great foundations, Lambent Material offers something fresh to the listener.
With a simple melody lasting a good five minutes long, Lambent Material appropriately begins with "The Unfinished." It's keyboard and guitar tones are reminiscent of Yo La Tengo's tranquil noise on Painful's "Big Day Coming." On "There Wasn't Anything," simple piano chords are minimally presented a la some of Jim O'Rourke's piano-based tracks. Effects and vocal samples slide into the track and create layers of beautiful tones, melodies and noise.
The album's centerpiece is "Zerthis Was A Shivering Human Image." At roughly 12 minutes long and repeating a washed out keyboard melody throughout, you will either be enthralled or annoyed (depending on your mood). The album closes with perhaps the best track, 'I Am So Much More Me That You Are Perfectly You.' This simple keyboard track is reflective of the entire album: A flawless workout in melody, minimalism and emotion all too rare in modern musical composition.
1. The Unfinished
2. Under the Water It Glowed
3. There Wasn't Anything
4. Zerthis Was a Shivering Human Image
5. I Am So Much More Me That You Are
More about: Eluvium
