Max Cooper Electrifies Philharmonie

On Saturday 15 March 2025, British electronic musician and DJ Max Cooper brought his “3D/AV Live” show to Philharmonie Luxembourg.

Traditionally, the Philharmonie Luxembourg is a venue which often caters more for the classical than the contemporary. However, with an ever-developing and increasingly diverse programme, its choice of contemporary acts has moved beyond modern classical and experimental jazz to also embrace established and burgeoning electronic artists.

For this show, Philharmonie Luxembourg welcomed Max Cooper, a British electronic composer, multi-disciplinary artist, music label founder and former scientist who has developed a reputation over the past fifteen years for producing powerful soundscapes and enthralling and engaging live shows.

With his latest release On Being, he has moved away from his club culture roots and produced an experimental album of what he describes as “an exploration of the desperate experience of being human”, turning the dynamic of artist and audience on its head by seeking to use the experiences of his audience as inspiration rather than attempting to influence his audience’s experience through his music.

For this tour he has added a visual show consisting of digital projections which seek to place his audience within the rhythmic forms of his compositions. To accomplish this, the stage of Philharmonie’s Grand Hall sees two large screens erected, one front of stage with the other at the rear. In between sits Cooper and his equipment, a collection of laptops and controllers in a configuration which looks as if he’s going to hack a computer mainframe or, more accurately, the minds of his audience.

With the room packed, the lights dimmed and Copper took to the stage to stand alone behind his equipment, a conductor unlike any other to have graced this venue. Yet, he is also the orchestra.

Beginning with the sound of droning fuzz and buzz, like a guitar lead being plugged into an amplifier, the visual projections began. Monochrome, geometric shapes appeared and folded into themselves before dripping over expanding digital landscapes. Their non-synchronous movement mixing with the rising audio ambience, creating a hypnotic effect upon the audience.

As the beats, pulses and glitches moved from the ambient to the energetic, it became obvious to all in attendance that this performance would see the Philharmonie’s excellent sound system tested to the limit. With multiple passages built across durations of around 30 minutes, Copper began each with a minimalist approach before applying a myriad of sounds and rhythms, lifting the atmosphere to seat-shaking, heart-pounding levels.

With projections featuring both front and back of the stage, the configuration served to create an aquarium of light and shape. Its contents shifting from monochrome frameworks to stretched bands of colour and ever shifting fractals. Patchworks of digital artefacts and circuit board-like textures meshed to create an alien, three-dimensional environment before expanding into microscopic Mondrian maps of colour.

After two hours of this audiovisual rollercoaster, Cooper finally appeared from behind his screens to reveal himself and take in the applause of the crowd. Like a modern-day Wizard of Oz, he had moved spectators from black and white to colour, successfully transporting the audience at the Philharmonie to a strange and mesmerising land of imagination and wonder.

SM