(Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality＜Volcanic Earth Vinyl＞

Ambient composer Matthew Cooper takes his work under the Eluvium moniker to a more cybernetic place on (Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality, focusing on humanitys fraught relationship with technology, algorithms, and operating systems. Luckily, this focus doesnt manifest as an especially futuristic reading of Eluviums always gently beautiful sound but as a sophisticated reflection of Coopers ruminations on technological themes delivered with warm strings and fluttering electronics. Members of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra provide the string arrangements, brass, gliding harp plucks, and other classical touches to the album, clashing with cold synth patches and searing atmospheric sounds on "Phantasia Telephonics" and leading the anthemic charge of the powerfully beautiful "Vibration Consensus Reality (for Spectral Multiband Resonator)." Its more difficult to parse out the organic strings from the digital ones on "Void Manifest," a song that further drives the records themes of technological dysphoria with a cast of computerized voices that gradually fade in and out of stretches of passionate operatic singing from Charlotte Mundy. Golden Retrievers Jonathan Sielaff adds texture to the albums electro-acoustic feel with his occasional bass clarinet contributions. Sielaff takes the spotlight on "Scatterbrains," a cautious and open piece that recalls the early new age pathfinding of the ECM label in the 1970s. As with much of the wide-ranging Eluvium catalog, Cooper scatters cinematic inflections of hope, loss, and yearning into (Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality. Though his inspirations might have been dystopic thoughts of algorithms and robotic interaction, the buoyant strings and inspiring compositions ultimately mirror human natures endless questing more than anything else. Like so much of Coopers work, these songs present raw depictions of hope at odds with sadness, only this time underscored with a palpable concern about how quickly the future is arriving and how little control human beings might have over it. ~ Fred Thomas