Thread: Jacob Cooper

Jacob Cooper is an American composer based in Philadelphia. I was wondering whether other had thoughts on his music. My introduction to him was a short and kaleidoscopic, but quiet piece on an Eighth Blackboard record, Hand Eye, titled "Cast."



Intrigued, I purchased his 2014 CD on Nonesuch, Silver Ladders, which turned out to be an enchanting work for voice and electronics, featuring Melissa Hughes.



I just received in the mail the debut CD of the String Orchestra of Brooklyn that features Cooper's work, Stabat Mater Dolorosa, for strings, organ, and voices; reminiscent perhaps of some of Brian Eno's experiments for Obscure Records from the 1970s, it builds off of the first movement of Pergolesi's work of the same name, albeit using extreme glacial pacing.

The sonics are better on the CD than on the youtube linked below, but it gives a taste:



Now he has a new recording out on New Amsterdam, titled Terrain. The reviews I've seen have been positive, such as: https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/none/le...oopers-terrain

Interesting music. It seems to be geared to the listener moreso than your other "minimal" music. It doesn't seem preoccupied with 'process.' It definitely gives a 'glacial' effect of something which has been slowed down. In that sense, it seems to reference some unknown outside source, rather than being self-generated. It seems 'removed' from wherever it originated. Stabat Mater Dolorosa gets interesting about 7 minutes in.
You're right about its resemblance to Eno's Ambient Music, which featured Pachabel's Canon time-stretched. This music differs from Glass' or Reich's minimalism in that regard. It sounds slowed-down.

I'm not sure why I wrote "Silver Ladders." The work is titled "Silver Threads."

You're right, million, the work is not exactly minimalist, instead I think it's written after minimalism. It uses some of the techniques associated with those composers, but it isn't intent on making process transparent as part of the experience of listening to it; rather it seems concerned to transport the listener to an almost inhabitable aural space, which marks an affinity more with Eno's ambient music.