Bio - Max Cooper

Max Cooper is an electronic composer, multi-disciplinary artist, music label founder and former scientist who has carved out a unique space in music and visual art.
He holds a PhD in computational biology at the same time as being the first contemporary electronic musician to perform at the ancient Acropolis theatre in Athens and one of the first clutch of musicians to produce in Dolby Atmos.

Cooper has enquired for over 15 years through music, collaborations, and his label Mesh, to explore the intersections between the arts and sciences with installations, performances, immersive experiences, online media, music videos and live events.  Anchored throughout is his emotive approach, connecting how ideas and forms feel, in a manner accessible to us all. 

As an artist synonymous with the evolution of club culture, Cooper honed his craft as a DJ with a 10 year residency at legendary Midlands techno event Firefly where he formed a foundational relationship with Architecture Social Club, with whom he still collaborates on extravagant immersive installations.

"I want to encourage the acceptance of electronic music as an art form like any other. Bringing electronic music and abstract audio-visual projects into concert halls, museums and galleries is liberating - the art world opens up doors to communicate in ways that aren’t possible elsewhere."

Cooper's newest release On Being, an exploration of the "desperate experience of being human", is his tenth studio album. Crafted over two years, gathering thousands of anonymous quotes to use as creative fuel, this is Cooper's first attempt to use the experiences of his audience as inspiration for his music - rather than attempting to influence his audience's experiences with his music. "I hadn't realised the impact that other people's words would have on me."

Pivoting from computational biology to electronic music might not seem like the most natural career transition, but for Cooper the commonalities are obvious:

"In both fields, you're in a sense, free. Free from the limits of living systems, free from the limits of corporeal sound. The only constraints are in your mind."

www.maxcooper.net

Bio - Jazer Giles

Jazer Giles (b. 1979) is an artist and composer living in Los Angeles, California. His video art, described by the American Composers Forum as “wonderfully glitchy and geometric,” has been seen in music videos, festivals, and art galleries around the world.

As a composer he has collaborated extensively with instrumentalists and choreographers and had his audio/video works featured at SEAMUS, Max Expo ’74, and the Five College New Music Festival. Recent collaborations with Barbie Diewald Dance were awarded grants from NEFA and Massachusetts Cultural Council, presented domestically and internationally at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, Bates Dance Festival, Ponderosa Dance, and New Dance Alliance.

Jazer holds undergraduate degrees in music and physics from Skidmore College and a graduate degree in music composition from the University of Massachusetts. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Media Arts and Technology Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Synopsis

Leaving This Place (Max Cooper x Jazer Giles)

From the Album:  Live at the Acropolis (Released by Mesh June 2021)

Live at the Acropolis is a 18-track live album of the performance that took place on 6th July 2021 as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival. The album encompasses Coopers' wide-body of works from album projects such as Emergence, One Hundred Billion Sparks, Yearning for the Infinite and stunning reworks of Joep Beving and Henry Green.

Hidden in the music and visuals of Leaving This Place lies a beautiful balance of computational and organic form, rich with structure and rules, sub-systems and details - full of a sort of ‘wrongness’ that signifies art from a human.  

Flow Gates (Max Cooper x Jazer Giles)

From the Album:  Lattice 002 (Released by Mesh 2024)

Lattice 002 is the second of a series forthcoming on Mesh curated by Acclaimed musician, sound designer and creative Max Cooper.  Launched in 2023 the Lattice project invites artists and producers to stretch the boundaries of their creativity, offering listeners an auditory experience that blends cutting-edge electronic beats with references from across the musical spectrum. 

Flow Gates - Pixels, simple rules and emergence to show us something important about our world.