It is hard to find a good reference point for the music of Mike Cooper. Over the course of a career now stretching past 50 years, first as a British blues guitar guru (sharing the stage with Howlin Wolf and John Lee Hooker, among many) through to his current pioneering of “Ambient Electronic Exotica,” Cooper has built a truly multifaceted body of work — and a life — that is wholly his own. He’s the sort of storied person who oozes legend and mystery, whether in apocryphal anecdotes about turning down an offer to join the Rolling Stones or in his wonderfully rich appreciation for Hawaiian shirts.
About those shirts though: Cooper’s music has drawn increasingly from his passion for the South Pacific, leading to a string of warm, hibiscus-tinted records that call up a hazy and bent vision of Oceania. And he continues to sail ever father southward with his upcoming release, Raft, which is very actually about rafts (the water vessels), and (maybe) figuratively about the “the determination of the solo traveler” heading into the mystery of the high seas. Fashioned from steel guitar, processed field recordings, and (one might guess) enchanted sand gathered from the remotest islands of outer Polynesia, it charts a course for the edge of the known map before sailing back to civilization with the unbelievable news that, holy shit, this damn place isn’t flat after all!
And speaking of “unbelievable news,” TMT is honored to premiere Cooper’s video for album cut “Raft 21 Guayaquil to Tully” for you today! Absorb the meditative, heavily aquatic imagery right here, mix a stiff Mai Tai, watch the sun set over the cove, and prepare yourself for July 7, when Lawrence English’s Room40 label releases a whole fleet’s worth of Cooper’s Raft album on digital and vinyl editions. Also, if you’ve got enough vacation days saved up, be sure to take a bonus cruise around Mike Cooper’s lovely website.
Raft tracklisting:
01. Raft 21 - Guayaquil to Tully
02. Raft 37 - Las Balsas
04. Raft 33 - Malama Honua (to Care for Our Earth)
05. Raft 29 - Honey Hunters
06. Raft 36 - Age Unlimited
07. Raft 27 - Guayaquil to Ballina