University of Huddersfield Residencies, 2019
A crucial member of Yorkshire’s far-reaching experimental music scene, Sophie Cooper has spent the last two decades as a songwriter, improviser and noisemaker, duel-wielding guitar and trombone in equal measure. Her recent projects have included the Slowest Lift, a noise pop duo with Vibracathedral Orchestra’s Julian Bradley, and Caravan Comedown, avant-garde’s answer to the common jam band. Cooper’s work travels many lanes: at times it is astral, her fingerpicking guitar and droning horn conjuring up the cosmic. Her work has, however, become increasingly humanistic, concerned with our violent government and its anti-people policies.
As part of her residency for hcmf// and CeReNeM, Cooper wrote Intact, a 15-minute rumination on the loneliness and isolation of being without family. Borrowing poems from the service users at Stand Alone, a charity that supports adults estranged from their families, Cooper layered her own voice, looping a single monotonous vocal line through a nauseating cycle of unattended emotions. The piece was fractured with shards of noise and electro-acoustic drone, but still hinted at the instinctive, wayward melodies Cooper’s work is founded on.