Artists: Cooptrol
SM Music
Cooptrol is more than Hernán González’s (Johannesburg 1976) artistic name. It has become a complementary personality in its own right, and a central force in South American experimental music scene. A project that had its 10th anniversary in 2010, and has circulated between defined stylistic landmarks: Dub, Post-Industrial, IDM, Techno, Dubstep, always combined in subtle ways to define a very personal view of music. Cooptrol is all about the power of music to conform the undefinable. The pursuit for abstraction and simultaneously conceptual through pure form.
With a past as drummer since the early 90’s, syncopation and polyrhythms rule his music, as well as a love for all sounds synthetic. An electronic music purist, Cooptrol is not a fan of genre crossovers. Electronic music is a universe wide enough to express anything, and a lot of different things have been said since Cooptrol’s first official release “Detractor” in 2004. Subsequent releases such as “Ubicuidad” (2005) and “Avatar” (2007) constitute experiments in genre creation. This first body of work take Cooptrol to the first European tour in 2007, playing in Spain, Switzerland and Germany, and with the participation in famed Experimentaclub festival in Madrid, sharing stages with big acts such as Merzbow or Mouse On Mars.
Having met the European scene first-hand, the period between 2008 and 2010 signs a the new strategy of taking hold of bass music and model it to Cooptrol’s standards of abstraction and potent rhythmical devices. “Far South Nights” and “Southern Fire” combine hip hop, dubstep, glitch, vocals and remixing collaborations with many artists worldwide. These are also the first European releases, through UK label Duster. Another Euro-tour in 2009 consolidates Cooptrol’s ability to provide a powerful live show. By the end of 2010 the Ep “The Fin” is released, as a bridge between the bass music predecessors and a return to experimentalism and free-form.
2011's “Danx” is a perfect synthesis of all the elements that have gone in and out his music all these years, it constitutes another exploration into genre creation.
