The 10 Best Songs to Explore An Art Gallery To – according to Max Cooper

Having established himself as a master of the finely tuned brevity of an EP, Max Cooper is preparing to step out into the world of the long player with his debut full length, Human.

It’s full of the intricately rendered detail and progressive, thoughtful approach that we’ve grown to love from Cooper. Its beautiful, quiet majesty is perfectly suited to, say, a stroll round an art gallery. It’s intense, but beautiful – and incredibly visual in its filmic, grand atmospherics. So what could be more fitting than a playlist of the man himself about the songs he’d choose as his soundtrack if he was planning such a jaunt?

Read on to find out what and why Cooper chose. From surreal artistic robot sex orgies, to the perfect soundtrack to Siberian photography – he’s thought of it all:

A Winged Victory for the Sullen – “Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears”

A beautiful soft flowing intro that develops into an even more beautiful crescendo. I even used this as the intro for my Synesthetes Museum mix about the British Museum, so what better way to start a list of songs to explore a gallery to?

Blanck Mass – “White Math”

An 11 minute education in the power of minimalism – despite the extremely drawn out loops and slow development it somehow never gets boring, but just turns into a hypnotic exploration of subtleties. Would be good for venturing through abstract gallery sections and letting it wash over and sink in without caring so much about what it says on the labels.

Ben Frost – “Killshot”

This is for when you venture into the section of the gallery with homeless Siberian and Holocaust photography. An intense venture into something seething with meaning, I love it.

Max Richter – “Horizon Variations”

And a return to serene reflective reality with what is probably my favourite piece from Max Richter. It’s less than 2 minutes long, so maybe you’ll put it on repeat a few times as you walk around – personally I can never manage to only listen to this piece of music once.

Air – “La Femme D’Argent”

It’s warm and sunny in the gallery, there’s a nice breeze, everything is OK, and there’s some beautiful works of human achievement to look at and listen too.

Donato Dozzy – “S.T.”

Still floating through the gallery, recuperating along the way because something is probably going to jump out soon…

Vaetxh – “Unfolding Mechanism”

Golly! You accidentally walked into the wrong room and found the celebrity museum owners embroiled in some sort of surreal artistic robot sex orgy.

The Flashbulb – “Undiscovered Colours”

Luckily you managed to escape unsullied by the machines and find you way back to the beautiful landscape features.

Bjork – “All is Full of Love”

Ah, it all makes sense now, the owner obviously has an interest in these things. What a beautiful exhibit, maybe it wasn’t so scary after all? Maybe go and have another look?

Hiatus – “Third” (Max Cooper Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unydrcqqSFA

East meets West with Cyrus Shahrad’s fusion of traditional and modern elements. It’s a shame the exhibition is over already.

And a recommendation from us – Max’s own new single “Empyrean”:

Max’s debut album Human is out now on Fields. He is set to launch the record live on 5 April at London’s Crucifix Lane – more information here.