Text written by Max Cooper
EMERGENCE is an epic, immersive audio-visual experience, the debut film directed and soundtracked by Max Cooper.
Buy on Blu-ray: https://ffm.to/emergenceatmos
The story explores the development of the universe, the creation of unexpected and often beautiful outcomes from simple natural systems, and how complexity, like human beings, can spawn from the immaterial by the action of simple laws embedded in the foundations of reality.
More information about the project can be found at https://emergence.maxcooper.net/
Emergence was initially released in 2016 as a soundtrack to Max’s live show narrative exploring the concept of ‘emergence’. Over time, chapters of the story have been shared online and featured in Cooper’s live shows.
Now with audio remastered in surround sound by Cooper and the engineers at Dolby Atmos, the project is finally available as a monumental 90 min animated film.
The work is a marriage of cosmic awe and wonderment, a meditation on the mystery of our emotional connection to fundamental natural form. Referencing ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ and ‘Samsara’ in approach, but grounded in imagery from science rather than classic cinematography.
Few artists are as qualified as Max to approach as profound an idea as ‘emergence’ through electronic music and video. Max received a Ph.D in computational biology in 2008 with research on the evolution of gene regulatory networks and was a geneticist at UCL before he switched to music. To this end he collaborated with artists Andy Lomas, Nick Cobby and Henning M Lederer plus mathematician Dugan Hammock.
In each chapter of the ‘Emergence’ narrative, the focus is on the beauty of the natural laws and processes in operation, with a mixture of real data visualisation and animated film. It interprets the deep structures and principles that give rise to the familiar physical universe, such as symmetries, the distribution of the primes, waves, spatial dimensionality, and the action of the physical forces on matter. Later chapters tackle the emergence of biological forms, thought and eventually a darker turn into the structures and systems of human civilisation.
Max has synthesised his skill as a producer and his deep interests in science to create a unique experience to explore the sonic limits of home audio.
Director: Max Cooper
Title: Emergence
Format: Blu-ray
Cat #: MESH026B
General release: 18 October 2019
Chapters / tracklist:
1 The Primes
Video: Dugan Hammock
Audio: Max Cooper and Tom Hodge - "Myth"
2 Symmetry
Video: Kevin McGloughlin
Audio: Max Cooper and Tom Hodge - "Symmetry"
3 Waves
Video: Kevin McGloughlin
Audio: Max Cooper - "Waves"
4 Gravity
Video: David Wexler
Audio: Jon Kwan - "Dawn" - Max Cooper Remix
5 Inside the Black Hole
Video: Susi Sie
Video: Murat Sayginer
Audio: Max Cooper - "Distant Light"
6 Tectonics
Video: Morgan Beringer and Cornus Ammonis
Audio: Max Cooper - "Molten Landscapes"
7 Protolife
Video: RabbitHole and BlackBox
Audio: Max Cooper - "Origins"
8 Biochemistry
Video: Nick Cobby
Audio: Max Cooper and Tom Hodge - "Fragments of Self"
9 Cellular Forms
Video: Andy Lomas
Audio: Max Cooper - "Cyclic"
10 Microbiology
Video: Maxime Causeret
Audio: Max Cooper - "Order from Chaos"
11 Waterforms
Video: Vincent Houze
Audio: Max Cooper feat. Kathrin DeBoer - "Seed"
12 Complex Morphologies
Video: Sabine Volkert
Audio: Max Cooper - "Organa"
13 The Human Machine
Video: Henning M. Lederer
Audio: Max Cooper - "Anatomic"
14 Civilisation
Video: Murat Sayginer and Morgan Beringer
Audio: Skew (Max Cooper) and Satirist - "Morphogenesis"
15 The Capitalist Machine
Video: Henning M. Lederer
Audio: Max Cooper feat. Kathrin DeBoer - "Numb"
16 Altruism
Video: R.C. Aksun
Audio: Max Cooper feat. Kathrin DeBoer - "Trust"
17 Future Entities
Video: Paul Bloomfield
Audio: The Rustle of the Stars - "Sleeping Land Part 1" - Max Cooper Remix
18 Unbounded:
Video: Morgan Beringer
Audio: Max Cooper - Unbounded
Credits
Written & Directed by Max Cooper
Post Production by Morgan Beringer, Jennifer Tividad
Dolby Atmos Mix by Max Cooper
Dolby Atmos Mix Engineers - Luke Argilla, Jake Fields, James McNamee
Dolby Atmos Mastering Engineers - Jurgen Scharpf, Luke Argilla
Management contact: James Bullock – james@thewildseeds.com
Press contact: Rosalie De Mayer - rosalie@tailored-communication.com