Harmonisch Serie

Harmonisch Serie

26 January, 2009 | 8.38AM

• Written by: freshair
• Filed under: Videos : harmonisch serie, max cooper, traum

Traum is proud to welcome the new “wunderkind” from the UK, Max Cooper. 

Cooper is a DJ who is also involved in mathematical modelling research on the evolution of networks of genes at University College London, a sci-art project combining evolutionary and music production algorithms.

Max Cooper has many lives and he is a true wizard in his category. Born originally in Belfast he has been resident at the Rumour as well as playing his 9th year at clubnight “Firefly”. Max can be heard regularly Djing in The Key - London, Stealth – Nottingham and The Cross – London. He was quickly recognised by the media, receiving the label of Mixmag ‘future hero’.

Max has joined Traum with a 5 tracker involving top English producer Kanio for a remix of the a-side track “Harmonisch Serie” as well as including another English artist, Ito, remixing his track “Compact Yourself“ on the digital side.

Max Cooper´s innovative programming positions him music-wise alongside artists such as Dominik Eulberg, Minilogue and Extrawelt. His epic structure has a unique narrative character to it which distinguishes him from others and sometimes dares to become almost soundtrack like, full of ambience.  Maybe this is best expressed by his B2 track “i” , which you can hear digitally in an even longer version.

His debut on Traum is a unique sound sensation of incredible details and big sound layouts, as if made for Traum.  Melodic and gentle but at the same time energetic and full of colours with a sci fi edge to it!

How does it feel to be on a label with international artists like Minilogue, Dominic Eulberg, Fairmont, Nathan fake, Bukaddor and Fishbeck ete etc?

Traum has been one of my favourite labels for some years now, so it’s amazing to be working with them, especially given the direction I want to take with my sound. To be honest, I can’t actually think of a better label I could be on.

You did a Remix of Extrawelt’s “Im Garten von eben” at the end of 2008 on Traum. What feedback did you get on your mix from other djs, and when you played it out in the clubs?

Well, Ricardo Villalobos told me that my mix reminded him of an orange that wanted to be a parsnip, who had an unhealthy obsession with upside down pyjamas.

Read in to that what you will! Really, I have had lots of good feedback on the mix, and some great crowd responses.  It does get quite noisy at points, so it works nicely on the dancefloor.

Laurent Garnier has been playing it and gave me some great feedback, as did Einmusik, Patrice Baumel and Misc among others, so I was pleased all round.

You are a DJ and a producer as well. What is the difference for you?

I find both things enjoyable for different reasons, almost opposite reasons actually.

Producing is a stable, academic sort of enjoyment for me, which is based on a reward for hours of hard work and lots of creative and critical thinking.

While DJing is more of a focused hit of excitement that’s shorter lived and much more intense, which can be more fun at the time, but in hindsight can be a bit less meaningful than writing music.

I think the long-term reward of productions is there because of the almost infinite creative freedom and complexity it provides. DJing is confined within a much smaller range of creative possibilities.

You work with Traum now; what is the difference between this label and the others you have worked with before? What was the biggest change? Style-wise? Philosophy? People?

There is a very noticeable difference actually. Traum take a very proactive approach, attending to the details of every track and release to ensure the best quality and artistic content.

They have also encouraged me to push my own artistic direction rather than just trying to extract tracks maximise units, and are managing my complete release output as well as my DJ bookings, so it’s the complete package really.

There aren’t many labels that do things to this level. So the biggest change was getting used to the increased communications and thought going into everything, as well as starting to discuss my musical direction and philosophy in detail, as a sort of long term plan.

This has been very useful, and I have some really exciting projects on the way as a result.

What do you aim at with Harmonisch serie?

With ‘Harmonisch Serie’, I was trying to write a meaningful piece of music that would still carry plenty of dancefloor appeal.

So I tried to make it as lush as possible with some big pads and eerie pitch bends, while still producing a good punch in the drums and pace in the track.

And of course the hook was all important, which came about in the main synth riff. I tried to make it as catchy as possible while still carrying the mood of the track.

What are your plans after this?

I am already working on my next EP for Traum, which I better not say too much about so I don’t get dropped.

It does have a nice rhythm based techno track on there, which gets pretty wonky and again, some amazing remixers on board for the EP.

I’m also keen to do some more work with Firefly recordings and Shrink records in the UK, and Autist records in Berlin, who have all been great with my recent releases for them.

What does Harmonisch Serie mean?

The name comes from the English ‘Harmonic Series’, which describes the philosophy behind the track and the video [in the player above].The final video will be released really soon.

A harmonic series is an important mathematical and musical concept, describing a repeating pattern of changes to a string of numbers, so that each number on the string is a multiple or divisor of its neighbours.

These sorts of ‘infinite sets’ are used in maths to do things like calculating the number π (pi), and describe a property of notes in music, which, in addition to their fundamental frequency, tend to have lots of higher (harmonic) frequencies that are divisors of the fundamental, and give each note an audible ‘richness’.

So the idea behind ‘Harmonisch Serie’ is that the human concept of what is musically (or artistically) beautiful; is often the result of mathematical properties that are understood at an unconscious level, giving us the feeling that we like the particular piece of music (or art).

That’s why chords sound pleasing or not to us in music, because we detect subconsciously how the different frequencies of the notes interact mathematically, finding those chords that fit nicely into one another (in terms of the ratios of frequencies) more pleasing - there’s a lot of complicated maths going on inside your head. 

Rant over, I could go on about this all day!

Will there be a visual to ‘Harmonisch Serie’?

Yes, the video is being produced by a great artist from the UK called Andrew Brewer (aka Whiskas fx) who I will be working with a lot in future on some exciting new projects tying in the visual element with my productions for some club shows.

You are a well known DJ in the UK. Where can we catch you playing there over the coming weeks?

‘Firefly’ is an amazing night in the UK that I have been lucky enough to play at over the years, you can catch me there on the 24th of January along with Brodinski, Tractile (minus) and Rogue Element, where I will be doing a special six-deck show with Jeet, called ‘Thrash Jelly’.

Other big parties to look out for will be my launch night for the ‘Harmonisch EP’ on Traum, on the 31st January at Stealth in Nottingham and ‘Under the Stairs’ at 333 in London, on the 20th of February.

Looking a bit further ahead, one other party I’m particularly looking forward to is ‘Dunkle Technik’ at Kerbcrawler in Leeds on the 7th of March.

Any dj gigs outside the UK in the future through Traum Booking?

Yes, I will be pushing my German and European gigs now to promote my release on Traum and forthcoming releases to the market outside of the UK.

What is the story behind"i"?

‘i’ was the last track for my Traum EP, and the label asked me to do something more experimental, without having to necessarily have a dancefloor focus in mind.

I really enjoy writing music like this, just seeing what happens without having to worry about what other people might think of the track, or whether is right for the clubs.

In the end the track did come out reasonably dancefloor friendly, but going back to my description of ‘Harmonisch Serie’, where I spoke about keeping the drums punchy as a focus.

For ‘i’, I let go with the pads, making them fill the mix to give the track maximum atmosphere, even thought the drums become less punchy as a result.

It’s probably my favourite track of mine from the EP, and definitely a sign of the direction I’m taking on Traum...The aim is to go for a full listening album without constraints.

Any occupation apart from music you are participating in?

I recently finished a PhD in genetics, and I am currently involved in continuing this research at University College London.

It’s all entirely theoretical, so no clones or mutant babies running about the lab like people get worried about.

Just computer based research, modelling how networks of genes evolve. It sounds entirely unrelated to music, but that’s not the case, I am also working on a project uniting the two, which I won’t go into too much until I have something to show you!

Anything you want to add?

No thanks, I think everyone has had quite enough of my rantings!

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