Career
Under the pseudonym Eluvium, Matthew Cooper released his debut album, Lambent Material (2003). It was followed by a solo piano album, An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death (2004). He then released Talk Amongst the Trees (2005), as well as Copia (2007).
Cooper has also teamed up with Charles Buckingham, with whom he has worked on the ambient video project titled Window Exchange, to produce the "unedited improvised basement minidisc recordings" of Concert Silence. In the fall of 2007, Concert Silence made 09.22.07 [2-3pm], a 51-minute, six part instrumental piece.
In 2008, Cooper announced he would release a "solo album" under the name Matthew Robert Cooper. Writing on the Temporary Residence message boards, Cooper explained the change "this is not far from something "eluvium" would release—but since I began writing them—I felt that they were somehow disconnected from eluvium—perhaps a different personality took shape—thus, the use of a different name - this work is very dear to me."
Miniatures was issued in 2008 on a limited vinyl release on the fledgling Portland label, Gaarden Records. The album was limited to 2,000 copies with the first 1,000 on colored vinyl.
In 2010, Infraction Records released "09.22.07 [2-3pm]" on limited edition vinyl and compact disc, alongside a new 12" E.P./CD titled "Rain Furniture".
Cooper scored fellow Portlander Matt McCormick's feature film debut Some Days Are Better Than Others, under Temporary Residence Limited. One of Cooper's original pieces can be heard in the trailer of the film. Another film scored by Cooper is For Thousands of Miles (2013) by Mike Ambs.
In 2012, Cooper began releasing electronic music under a new moniker, Martin Eden, named after the 1909 Jack London book. Cooper described the debut Martin Eden 7" as something that "may appeal to fans of early Aphex Twin stuff, or turn of the century electronic music."
Cooper has released an Eluvium 10" vinyl named "Pedals / Petals" in January 2013, for the Vinyl Films project by film director Cameron Crowe.
Cooper and Mark T. Smith of Explosions in the Sky teamed up to form a new act called Inventions, who released their self-titled first album, in 2014 through Temporary Residence. The duo released two more albums: Maze of Woods (2015) and Continuous Portrait (2020).
In 2016, Cooper released the album False Readings On. He also released Pianoworks (2019) and (Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality (2023).
