From now on, each month I’m going to focus on a particular artist/musician. To start that off this month (April, 2009), I’m going to focus on Mike Cooper.
Mike Cooper was born in the U.K. but now lives in Rome, Italy (though he does travel quite extensively). At the moment he is out in Australia for some shows (some of which have already happened). I managed to catch his show in Dulwich Hill at Don’t Look Gallery and it was quite a treat. His performance reminded me of Eugene Chadbourne (who came out to Australia just last January for the 2008 NOW now Festival) in that both are quite proficient musicians in a traditional sense and that they have this as a backbone for their avant garde explorations. Whereas Eugene Chadbourne is a masterful banjo player and has roots in free jazz, Mike Cooper has roots in country and blues guitar. His show consisted of an electric lap-steel guitar being played and processed through several pedals/electronic devices to the point where it was much more laden with drone and ambience. I found particularly interesting Cooper’s use of a battery operated fan for playing his guitar. Although he didn’t use them, I noticed that Cooper had a selection of other objects to use in his performance, including an old toothbrush. Cooper contrasted this experimental sound with quite startingly blues singing. Occasionally he sampled these as well until they became buried within the overall sound.
Cooper has been an active musician for over 40 years. In the late 1960s Cooper helped popularise the British Blues genre, along with other people such as Jo Ann Kelly. From the 1970s until present day, Cooper began collaborating and working with avant garde performers. A lot of these are spoken about in his Wikipedia article. Cooper has also been involved in experimental film scores for silent films, some of which are classic c. 1920s era films, others contemporary.
Cooper has travelled to Australia and New Zealand quite frequently since 1994, and as a result this has led to several collaborations including a Room 40 release called Oceanic Feeling with Chris Abrahams of the influential experimental jazz improvisation band The Necks, which I have yet to get my hands on. Cooper is playing a show next Monday (April the 9th) at Serial Space alongside some other people including a group featuring Chris Abrahams. I’m not sure where else he’s playing, but if I have a chat with him I’ll update this blog post.
For a complete discography, visit Cooper’s website, where he also offers free downloads of some of his music.
Filed under: Artist Focus, Euguene Chadbourne, Mike Cooper, 2008 NOW now Festival, Don't Look Gallery, Eugene Chadbourne, Jo Ann Kelly, Mike Cooper, Oceanic Feeling, Serial Space, The Necks
