Eluvium, the moniker of Matthew Robert Cooper, will release a new album on Brooklyn’s Temporary Residence Ltd. in May.

Taking initial inspirations from T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” and Richard Brautigan’s “All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace,” (Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality deals both with humankind’s need for meaning, and the emergence of algorithms reflecting the feedback loops of humankind’s interactions with machines themselves. This complicated relationship that we have with technology, automations, and algorithms, and the influence they in turn have on shaping our image of the world, is the “mechanized heart and soul” of the album, we’re told.

During the writing process, Cooper began experiencing shoulder and arm pain that rendered his left arm increasingly debilitated. This inspired new compositional methods that blended varying degrees of electronic automations with traditional songwriting. For instance, lyrical themes were built using algorithms rather than a notebook filled with years of scribbled thoughts, poems, and notes on the spirit of existence.

Employing musicians from all around the world, including members of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Golden Retriever, and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, the music was conducted and recorded remotely via teleconference during the global pandemic lockdowns.

Cooper’s last release on Temporary Residence Ltd. came in the shape of Virga II, released in August 2021.

Tracklisting

01. Escapement
02. Swift Automatons
03. Vibration Consensus Reality (for Spectral Multiband Resonator)
04. Scatterbrains
05. Phantasia Telephonics
06. The Violet Light
07. Void Manifest
08. Clockwork Fables
09. Mass Lossless Interbeing
10. A Floating World of Demons
11. Endless Flower

(Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality LP is scheduled for May 12 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Escapement” and “Swift Automatons” in full via the player below and pre-order here.

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