Description
Since 2016 weve been blessed with Mike Cooper in our catalog. The first installment was New Kiribati, revisiting a self-released 1999 CDR in which Mike Cooper was experimenting with a lap steel, electronics, prepared guitar and live recordings, creating what he called Ambient Exotica Soundscapes. In the following year, Reluctant Swimmer showed an enigmatic, exotic and elegant adventure into Mikes 1920s National tri-plate lap steel guitar and his Vietnamese electric lap steel. Two pieces, two sides, each ending with beautiful interpretations of some Mikes favourite songs, Movies Is Magic by Van Dyke Parks and Fred Neils Dolphins.
2018 and its time for some new discoveries into Mike Coopers limitless exploration in his collection of guitars. The title itself, Tropical Gothic references Coopers beloved areas of the South with a Gothic, dark, remote interplay… Tropical Gothic includes, but is by no means limited to, a reflection on a region where European colonial powers fought intensively against indigenous populations and against each other for control of land and resources.
In each side Mike Cooper studies different approaches to his method of uniting guitar and field recordings into a constant stream of sound, where he delivers chaos and melody not necessarilyin that order. Side A is composed of shorter pieces. Each of them offers a myriad of images and sensations, between the enigmatic and terror (The Pit), joy, happiness and freedom (Running Naked) or pure contemplation (Onibaba).
Onibaba runs as a fitting introduction to Side B and its 18th minute magical piece Lelong & Gods Of Bali. A mix of ambient exotica music, silent film soundtrack and distorted rhythms that dance around Mikes guitar. It keeps reinventing and transforming itself throughout those eighteen minutes, summing up the dexterity and muscle of Mike Coopers music of the last two decades.
Tropical Gothic by Mike Cooper
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