Fairenheit Far Away: Charlie Cooper of Telefon Tel Aviv will be missed

Charlie Cooper of Telefon Tel Aviv passed away on January 22.

From Josh Eustis on the Telefon Tel Aviv Myspace Page:

We have been so fortunate to tour the world together, while at the same time having a massive amount of laughs at one another’s expense.

Aside from Charlie’s singular genius and musical gifts, I can tell you that he was a total sweetheart of a guy, and a loving friend and confidant to people everywhere. His musicianship was surpassed only by his greater gift to the world – his warmth, his generosity, his unquenchable humor, and his undying loyalty to those whom he loved. In the spirit of honorable mention, however, I should mention that he had a shoe collection that was marvelous, knowledge of hip-hop that was profound, and knowledge of wine that was subtle.

When their album was released in 2001 I was deep in the Chicago IDM scene, spending my Monday nights at Danny’s in Bucktown supporting the experimental scene and bonding with my fellow industry folk, among them Charlie and Josh as well as their compatriots at Hefty Records, as well as other artists and labels that were Chicago-local. I was running Modsquare.com at the time, a webzine doing IDM album reviews, gear hyping, Chicago-event promoting, and interviews with notable musicians in or around the genre.

Hefty folk confided in me that one day at the office they received a FedEx envelope with a demo inside and were immediately impressed with whatever band would be so ambitious as to overnight it. Turns out that band was Telefon Tel Aviv, and Hefty would go onto release the melodic IDM opus that was Fahrenheit Fair Enough. More than once when I had a DJ gig that let me get away with intellectual melodic downtempo I would sneak in the hit that was “ttv” off said album. I did a silly review for the site–that Charlie and I had a laugh about–of Ghostly’s Idol Tryouts where the press promo had reversed the titles of two songs, and since I was familiar with all the artists involved I could decipher by ear which was which. For me, TTV were the IDM rock stars of Chicago, combining forward-thinking, processor-intensive programming with a developed songwriting skill that conveyed deep and complex emotion, and gaining fans at every turn.

Unlike artists that constantly replay the formula they’re best known for, Charlie and Josh as Telefon Tel Aviv were continually evolving, not content to lounge in the accolades they received from their first album. They went on to include vocals integrated in their then-signature sound in Map of What is Effortless and delve within songwriting itself and crossing genre boundaries in their just-released Immolate Yourself.

Charlie will be missed. Much love and support to Josh and Charlie’s family.