Tropical Gothic

CD version of Mike Cooper’s now classic 2018’s ‘Tropical Gothic’ – now released with a bonus live performance recorded at London’s Café Oto.

CD1 Tropical Gothic Mike Cooper studies different approaches to his method of uniting guitar and field recordings into a constant stream of sound, where he delivers chaos and melody – not necessarily in that order. A series of shorter pieces open the album. Each of them offering a myriad of images and sensations, between the enigmatic and terror (“The Pit”), joy, happiness and freedom (“Running Naked”) or pure contemplation (“Onibaba”). The album closes with its 18th minute magical piece “Lelong & Gods Of Bali”. A mix of ambient exotica music, silent film soundtrack and distorted rhythms that dance around Mike’s guitar. It keeps reinventing and transforming itself throughout those eighteen minutes, summing up the dexterity and muscle of Mike Cooper’s music of the last two decades.

CD2 Tropical Gothic: Live at Café Oto ‘Tropical Gothic - Live At Cafe Oto’ was performed as a live improvised version of Mike’s release of the same name. Joined on stage by Clive Bell and Sylvia Hallet and performed alongside three of Mike’s videos - Ko Lanta, Walking In Ubin and a mash up containing excerpts from some of Mike’s favorite ‘tropical gothic’ films ( Onibaba, Opera Jawa, Kwaidan, Tabu & White Shadows In The South Seas).