Telefon Tel Aviv

(Charles Wesley Cooper: April 12, 1977 - January 22, 2009)

It's 4:03 in the morning right now. Since I can't fall asleep, I felt inclined to share with everyone what is sure to be one of the more memorable releases of the new year. Two weeks ago, Telefon Tel Aviv's Immolate Yourself was released, the electronic duo's first proper release since their 2004 effort, Map of What Is Effortless. Telefon Tel Aviv's Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper have been making music under the Telefon Tel Aviv alias for a decade now and likely would have continued to do so for quite a while longer were it not for Cooper's tragic and untimely death. Cooper passed away two weeks ago on January 22nd near the Chicago neighborhood, Wicker Park. He was 31 years old.

While the fate of the band is now uncertain, there's no doubt as to what kind of impact Cooper and Eustis have left on the world of electronic music over the course of their career. The two most recently released a compiled remixes record in 2007 following two acclaimed full-lengths, Fahrenheit Fair Enough and Map of What Is Effortless. In just the past five years, TTA have collaborated with an eclectic mix of musicians including the Loyola University Chamber Orchestra, Nine Inch Nails, and a plethora of others. Their collaborations were so varied and their music so influential that it wouldn't be much of a stretch to suggest that the mark they left on the world of IDM/ambient electronic music was not unlike that which Dilla left on underground and independent hip-hop prior to his own early departure a couple of years ago.

Telefon Tel Aviv was one of a few bands along with Four Tet and Prefuse 73 that really got me into the whole electronic thing back when I was in high school. It's because of this introduction that their music will always have a bit of a nostalgic impact on me. Eustis and Cooper's sound was personified by their beautiful ambient soundscapes with hi-fi and often glitchy trip-hop-styled production, a sound which the duo can distinctly call their own. Cooper is survived by his family, his many fans and friends, and Joshua Eustis, the other half of his long-time musical passion, Telefon Tel Aviv. Rest in peace, Charles.

Telefon Tel Aviv - The Birds (mp3 from Immolate Yourself)
Telefon Tel Aviv - What Is It Without The Hand That Wields It (video from Map of What Is Effortless)


---Header photo is via Josh's flickr