Erland Cooper's 'earth music' is genuinely beautiful and worth a listen

Artists often go to considerable lengths to produce work that is beautiful, insightful or in some way meaningful. But surely few have gone quite as far as composer Erland Cooper.

After recording his new album, Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence, Cooper deleted all the digital copies, leaving only a tape which he buried underground in Orkney in May 2021.

He then challenged people to find it using a trail of clues he released every equinox and solstice. Discovered in September 2022, the tape thankfully survived but was altered by the soil to the extent that the earth is now credited as a co-composer.

Erland Cooper | Alex Kozobolis

On listening to the tape, The Scotsman detected what could be described as background noise – the sort of thing self-help videos offer ways to remove – that created a certain breathy, ethereal quality, which may or may not be to your taste.

This may all sound bonkers or wonderful – or, indeed, wonderfully bonkers. However, in our opinion the music and the overall impression created really is genuinely beautiful.

Our congratulations to Cooper and, ahem, the earth.