Stochastic Parrot by Mike Cooper

 

Mike Cooper, an ever experimenting and expanding his musical vision is back with a new album and great collaborating guests on it, namely Pierre Bastien operating valve cornet and  Mark Cunninghamon trumpet. It is a conundrum  of a question to describe Mike's vision - and put it into something thatwouldtruly express how vast and how much does it touch in terms of themes and composition.

I would rather start with places it is set in. Imaginary places where you travel with the narrator and where he takes you. They are the true protagonists of the album. 

Releases on cd and mastered by Lawrence English from Room40 - this time and this journey is not a solo trip. Pierre Bastien and Mark Cunningham add up to the little team and they contribute greatly to the overall shape of this album - giving it richness and some sort of austere quality to Mike's musical world. 

It is a music of nautical dreams - soaked in the fluidity of the musical matter but yet very firm and solid when it comes to composition and an overall form. Field recordings and electronic experiments with brass instruments and least but not last lap steel guitar which Mike operates beautifully. 

A Note from Mike...

In the past some reviewers and critics of my series of Ambient / Electronic / Exotic releases mentioned Jon Hassell and even suggested that we should make an album together.

That never happened of course and probably never would have. An influence of his music on my exotica music is in some ways true but initially to be honest it was the cover art by Mati Klarwein for Aka/ Darbari/ Java and Dream Theory in Malaya that I would sometimes turn to look at for inspiration. They reminded me of places that I loved to be and why I was making the music. They were non-existent or imaginary places that i might have visited in dreams or half remembered from real places.

Mati also provided art work for the covers of Miles Davis’s records, from Bitches Brew onwards and for Carlos Santana amongst many others. There is also a lot of King Tubby and Lee Scratch Perry’s influence here in the process as well as the poetry and novels of Nathaniel Mackey which were referenced often during the gestation period.

credits

releases August 14, 2026

Thanks to the two guest musicians - Pierre Bastien and Mark Cunningham who both play cornet/trumpet adding analogue acoustic instrumentation to my digital daydreams..

Mike Cooper - Samples, Field Recordings, Voice, Lap Steel Guitars (real and virtual)

Pierre Bastien - Valve Cornet

Mark Cunningham - Trumpet

Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space

Design by Traianos Pakioufakis

Cover image by Mike Cooper

Bandcamp