Max Cooper opened the first edition of Ortigia Music at the Antico Mercato in Syracuse. His live performance blended abstract electronica with house-driven energy, projecting visuals of human nature across the historic arches. It was a precise beginning for a festival that expanded across beaches, markets, boat decks, and late-night sessions in Epipoli.
At the center of Cooper’s year is On Being, released February 28 on Mesh. The project challenges how music is created and shared. Instead of drawing only from his own ideas, he asked hundreds of anonymous contributors: “What would you like to express which you cannot in everyday life?” Their responses became the raw material for the record. The album makes us reflect on the limits of everyday expression and shows how art can bring hidden thoughts into sound.
On Being follows Unspoken Words (2022) and continues Cooper’s interest in combining music with collective human experience. Alongside the album, he will release a new EP, 8 Billion Realities, later this year. He is also expanding his large-scale installation work, with Reflections of Being presented at the Barbican’s “Feel The Sound” exhibition.
For Casawi’s “Close Friends” series, we spoke with him in Ortigia.
What did performing in Ortigia’s Antico Mercato give you that a club or concert hall would not?
“I love playing in outdoor spaces like that, there’s always a special atmosphere when we’re in amongst historic architecture. It gives a great canvas to work with for my visual show too, I love making imagery wrap unusual surfaces.”
You based On Being on anonymous thoughts. Did reading them change the way you see your own role as an artist?
“I felt much more part of a conversation than my usual writing process. Normally I would have a feeling or idea which I’m trying to render musically, in the hope that a listener might share my inner experience. But this time I was starting with those inner experiences from the listeners, and reflecting them back.”
After On Being, do you feel closer to your audience or more protective of your own voice?
“Certainly closer, the On Being project made me realise how much I share with those people who submitted their thoughts to start the process. They are beautifully varied and human, some painful, happy, everything you can imagine. ‘You couldn’t love me enough and I’ve spent my whole life making up for it’ to, ‘I only eat with spoon.’”
Do you have a personal motto or idea you return to when your work becomes overwhelming or unclear?
“Grounding helps, and going back to my notes, I have thousands of notes of projects and thoughts to guide me when I’m stuck.”
What Max does is surprise us with our own thoughts, showing how something we might keep private can become part of a shared experience. Through his work he creates a mirror that is collective as much as personal, and reminds us that in the end a connection with art is also a connection with ourselves.
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Alessandro Bello
Alessandro Bello is based in Amsterdam, working in marketing for a fashion brand with a passion for the fashion business and the latest trends. Always exploring how the industry evolves and shapes the future.
@alessandro.bello1