Electronic producer Max Cooper and ambient master Tim Hecker rework Ben Lukas Boysen on his new EP G olden Times 1 out on Erased Tapes, June 30th 2017.
Championed by many including BBC Radio DJ Mary Anne Hobbs as the standout track from his most recent album S pells, Boysens G olden T imes 1 forms the very heart of his new EP with the same name. Boysen entrusted none other than Max Cooper and Tim Hecker to meticulously shape and lure the title track plus second single Nocturne 4 into two entirely separate territories, yet never drifting too far away from their original soundscapes. With E vensong the composer himself contributes a previously unreleased piece. It is yet another example that Boysen is still opening new and unexplored doors in a bid to challenge the existing realm of contemporary music he is very much a part of.
Words from Ben and Max, May 2017:
Spells was somewhat of a conceptual release for me, so the choice of the
remixing artists and where the original material could be taken was very
important. Max and T im, both being role models for me ever since I began
listening to their work and who delivered this incredible abstraction, I felt
were spot on for this release and were dream candidates to work with. Their
ability to re-direct and even re-invent the original material, partially subtle,
and with an almost brutish sense of imagination, honors the originals
deeply.
Ben Lukas Boysen
Ben has been one of my most listened to artists of the past year or so. His
last two albums in particular, have meant a lot to me, and provided me with
focus when I needed it. S o I was excited to have a chance to remix his
work. I felt like I couldn't improve on his idea, but what I could do was
take what was the core for me, and expand it. It was just a matter of running
with the feeling I got from his original, sticking with his melodic forms and
original instrumentation, and letting the growing intens ity continue along
it's established path to the only poss ible end point of total annihilation in
chaos and distortion. My version is almost a continuation of his original if it
was allowed to bloss om into percussive format, rather than a traditional
remix.
Max Cooper
The golden EP cover art was created by Torsten Posselt at FELD as an extension from the initial album artwork he also created for S pells.