Eluvium
Lambent Material
Available on limited, dark red wax
"In the early 2000s I was living in downtown Portland, Oregon. I had a digital multi-tracker and a battery-powered cassette 4-track, some thrift store microphones, a Casio SK-1, some pedals, and a piano that came with the apartment I had moved into. I was constantly walking the streets recording wind in the trees, cars going by, crosswalk tones, anything that made sound. I was ravenous to explore the city’s surroundings with headphones and a microphone and then return to my apartment and make noises deep into the night. I was hanging microphones out my window on a rainy day and duetting with it on a friend’s Rhodes keyboard. I would sample small sections of LPs with a loop pedal and play a loaned guitar along with the samples. I would take apart broken effects pedals and try to rewire them to do something unusual… something I hadn’t heard before. I had no idea what I was doing and I was doing it. The mixture of these experiments and the emotional highs and lows of this stage in my life were the backbone of the music I was making. I had stopped making things that were trying to copy what I heard in others and had begun making sounds just for myself. Lambent Material collected these feelings and experiments. It was my first release under the name Eluvium. To this day I try to keep a hold of this blend of pure emotion and endless experimentation and to be unaware and unconcerned with what the outcomes may be and only with what it means to me.”
– Matthew Robert Cooper (Eluvium)