Eluvium - Nightmare Ending
Label.........................: Temporary Residence
Genre.........................: Ambient
StoreDate.....................: May-14-2013
Source........................: CDDA
Grabber.......................: Exact Audio Copy (Secure Mode)
Encoding Scheme...............: Lame 3.98.4 V0 VBR Joint-Stereo
Size..........................: 145.65MB
Total Playing Time............: 83:40
Release Notes:
An ambient composer with an indie perspective, Matthew Cooper has been
recording under the moniker Eluvium since his 2003 debut, Lambent
Material. With seventh album Nightmare Ending, Cooper drifts into his
tenth year with the project in grand style, presenting a double album
and arguably his finest moment. Always meticulous and insular, Eluvium's
tuneful drones have often garnered comparisons to Brian Eno's ambient
work, and piano-centered compositions like the stoic "Caroling" and
ominously atmospheric "Sleeper" certainly back up the reference point.
Alternately, the stuttering, rolling looped strings and soft undertones
of "Warm" bear more in common with both the slow-motion pacing of
William Basinski and a more organic take on Belong's fuzzy ambience than
they do Eno's often distant and academic pieces. Cooper's ability to
infuse a very human emotional arc into his wordless sheets of sound is a
large part of what's made his body of work so captivating. Electronic
webs meet with patient piano moments throughout Nightmare Ending,
sometimes casting heavy shadows of fear or pain, other times offering
relief from that very pain. Crashing waves of distortion play largely
into some of the pieces, with the nearly nine-minute-long "Rain Gently"
raising the noise floor so high it becomes a peaceful din that organic
instruments sit playful on top of rather than drown in. These
experiments with orchestrated noise have fantastic results, putting
Cooper in a class with soundscape artists like Tim Hecker, Emeralds, and
many on the Type Records roster. Final track "Happiness" stands out as
an anomaly, with detached tuba tones, deep piano, and plinky guitars
cycling through a simple chord progression until Yo La Tengo vocalist
Ira Kaplan comes in to sing the massive album's only vocal. The song
feels like a definitive (if somewhat unexpected) endpoint to the truly
epic collection of tones, turmoil, joys, and hardships spelled out over
the course of Nightmare Ending. Much as struggle and relief become
implied themes of the album, the closing track sits just outside the
narrative, implying the same closure as the postlude of a novel after
the final chapter.
Tracklisting
CD #1/2
--------
01. Don't Get Any Closer 9:06
02. Warm 7:10
03. By The Rails 2:15
04. Unknown Variation 8:42
05. Caroling 3:53
06. Sleeper 6:16
07. Envenom Mettle 5:22
CD #2/2
--------
01. Chime 3:25
02. Rain Gently 8:48
03. Impromptu (For The Procession) 4:00
04. Covered In Writing 9:18
05. Entendre 4:20
06. Strange Arrivals 2:50
07. Happiness 8:15
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