Shoaling Occurs is an immersive ambient exploration inspired by the phenomenon of shoaling—the way waves slow, rise, and compress as they meet shallower depths. These expansive soundscapes transform Australia’s vast, arid interior into an imagined underwater world, where desert becomes ocean and silence becomes resonance.

Across long-form pieces built from layered textures, shifting drones, and submerged melodies, the music drifts between cinematic ambient, deep listening, and meditative drone. From the perspective of lying on the ocean floor and gazing up at the shimmer of waves, each composition ripples with atmosphere, evoking both the weight and beauty of deep time, memory, and unseen forces.

A soundtrack for isolation, reflection, and the fluid movement of landscapes.

Shoaling Occurs is about connection, refuge, and the collective. In that spirit, all proceeds from its Bandcamp sales will go to UNICEF’s Emergency Appeal for the Children of Gaza.
If you’d like to contribute directly: https://www.unicef.org.au/donate/children-gaza-crisis-appeal

Teamed up with elasticStage, whose cutting-edge tech outperforms traditional commercial vinyl, to offer limited-run, on-demand editions.

These stunning 12” records come in full-color jackets with PETG (recycled, non-toxic) pressings, delivering a richer sound than legacy vinyl. Limited copies.

https://elasticstage.com/cooperblack-erode-ep-vinyl/releases/erode-album

Watching Rocks Fall (Soundtrack Theme)

Sometimes you give yourself projects to keep going, invent reasons, invent films that need a theme.This track is the first in a series of more experimental releases, that use the sounds of nature and the desert as the bed on which music and other sounds are laid, building something new from the almost invisible.

https://linktr.ee/cooperblack

"Water From Within is just gorgeous - I hear shades Robert Forster and later Sonic Youth and The Cure, so good!" - Kris Keough Mastering Engineer

*****empty rooms - sleepless nights - that tightening chest feeling again - the breath that heals slowly - the long walk - the bike ride essential - blood flow into the brain - realising the end in the middle of it all - being told of the end in the middle of it all - red flags, ignorance and blind continuity****

These are the inspiration, heart on the sleeve, the deep lover, the risk and the end

4 tracks inspired by classic post punk bands that have highly influenced Cooperblack music over the years.
These tracks also hold highly personal lyrics, as a response to the environment and people they co exist with in Central Australia - sometimes at the surface level, sometimes bubbling under hidden water.

In The Mourning - exploring ways of mourning, with soaring high voices, super wide synths, pumping beats and driving bass lines - reminiscent of bands like The Cure, New Order and other post punk classics.
Exploring the lyrical world of mourning, the difference and the ways we say goodbye together and alone.

Full Pockets, Empty Fields features Kelly-lee Hickey, a Mparntwe Central Australian based spoken word artist and writer who adds the stark reality of fracking in a land where water is so precious.

Super long form ambient drone track, A Void of Light features piano work by Mparntwe - Alice Springs based instrumentalist Lindsey Matthews (Dick City) and production by Cooperblack. This track takes you on a deep sea dive, in and out of intensity, a sonic cruise into the dark with hints of bioluminescence sparking the edges.
Best consumed horizontal, eyes closed and headphones on.

Originally released in 1998, and recorded on a Tascam 4 track and SoundEdit 16. Home release - we called 'cottage disc industries'. Fellow artist FTR assisted in the release, with handmade covers and printing, Super limited CD-R - was available in limited stores in Adelaide South Australia.
Original Album cover as jpg in bonus items

Remastered by Left Of Elephant Sound 2021

Pay what you want!!!
Cooperblack - Schwarz Mitgeschnitten - Happy Yess Live 24032007
Recorded bootleg styles at Happy Yess in Darwin, Northern Territory Australia 24th March 2007.
Very Live and unprocessed. Commonly known as the German night, it was one of the early Cooperblack gigs with Oliver Budack on drums, Simon Kormendy on keys, guitar and theramin and Jeremy Conlon on bass, acoustic guitar, voice and synth.
Happy Yess is a community run venue (now in the Browns Mart art precinct in Darwin City) and this was recorded in the first venue that Happy Yess inhabited, on Bennett Street in Darwin. This venue was a cafe before Happy Yess moved in, and is now a second hand bike store called Deadly Treadlies, right next to a barber store called Southern Cross Barbers.
Live Mix by Kris Keough or Duane Preston
If you listen closely and were around at this time, you can probably hear yourself in the audience!!!!
XXX Loads of Love - Jez

The Degradation Suite

Australian composer, DJ and electronic artist Cooperblack (Jeremy Conlon) releases ‘The Degradation Suite’, a six-track meditation on ‘the end of the world’.

Dense with bleak electronica, awash with cavernous field recordings and drenched in despondent live cello, ‘The Degradation Suite’ sounds like a requiem and feels like an epitaph: for the human race, for the environment and for life on earth as we know it.

Originally from Adelaide, now based in Alice Springs, classically-trained composer, Jeremy Conlon has lived in the Northern Territory for the best part of 15 years, largely in the Central Desert Region. Knowing first-hand the fragility of sustaining life in the most isolated of places, he was inspired to write a musical response to “the end of the world”.

“Central Australia is a place where most of the resources come from somewhere else,” he says. “This is an artistic response to what happens when they suddenly stop coming in: the impact and how humans react to the environment changing. It’s a soundtrack for a disaster film that hasn’t been written yet.”

For his tenth major recording, Conlon worked with talented collaborators. Alice Springs multi-instrumentalist, looper, singer and ‘NT Song of the year Finalist’ XAVIA fills Conlon’s synth-driven score with frail and vulnerabile cello playing, deepening the album's anxious emotional texture. Veteran engineer Ross Cockle at Melbourne’s Sing Sing Recording Studios mastered the album, a process Conlon found very rewarding.

“Ross was recommended to me as someone who would have an understanding of the sound I was after,” he says, “and of the potential uses of the music once completed. We had some really good conversations about the vision I saw in the music, what I wanted to do with it, and the general inspiration for the album.”

Achingly beautiful, it also kind of hurts to listen. While Beautiful But Dangerous is title of Track 3, it also perfectly sums up the aural effect of listening to - and taking in - this epic, atmospheric journey into the heart of darkness. It’s as hauntingly memorable as any of the greatest contemporary SF film scores - think the Solaris reboot, Moon and Under The Skin.

As desert dance and music festival-goers already know, Jeremy Conlon is an exciting musical talent and live performer.

You’ve been warned: travelling across 15 years and vast distances to get here, 'The Degradation Suite' is just as this unique Australian composer wants it to be.

A Seed of an Idea
Prolific producer Jeremy Conlon’s back with another Cooperblack EP, as Andrea Johnston reports

You’d be right to wonder what on earth “reagoivat”means. It is the Finnish word meaning to respond or react. Conlon met Finnish artist Heli Valkam when she travelled to Warlukurlangu Arts in Yuendumu.
“There are a lot of artists who travel to Warlukurlangu Arts Centre, and really like her art, and aspects on nature and art together,” Conlon said.
“I travelled to Helsinki in early 2017, and she performed on a composition on the Capsule EP called Suomenlinna.” After finishing Capsule, which was released earlier this year, Conlon set about a new exercise in composition.
“Heli sent me five images and I responded with music. I used the images primarily as lyrical inspiration,” Conlon said.
“I went into an automatic writing mode, and just let words out no matter what they felt or sounded like, and used them strictly in the music, not adding or subtracting anything. I tend to find sense in words later when the song is finished, for the most part.”
After three years in Yuendumu, Conlon has recently relocated to Alice Springs, and is currently enjoying some time in his home town of Adelaide, to make the most of opportunities for publicity. “It was totally inspiring living in Yuendumu, surrounded by awesome musicians and such a rich, loving community, on stunning country,” he said.
Conlon is now looking forward to concentrating on being a musician and performing at more live gigs, both with Cooperblack and his band Stellar Sea, in which he plays bass. Despite the obvious Nordic he described the new EP as “totally Central Desert”, although conceding there was a “dash of Europe” in the sound. He listed recent influences as Spoek Mathambo, Buraka Som Sistema, DJ Mujava, Aero Manyelo, Okmalumkoolat, Peaches, The Knife, and Cabo Snoop; all sounds you might hear if you’re lucky enough to catch a Cooperblack DJ set. Those with a keen ear might hear how those sounds have influenced Cooperblack’s sound.
“Capsule was definitely very dark and euro, using recorded sounds from around the world to form a texture and background,” Conlon said.
“Reagoivat Seed was faster in process due to self-imposed limitations such as time, lyrics and even the music.”

October 2017 The Advocate Alice Springs



Electronic music from Central Australian Producer Cooperblack. (Jeremy Conlon)

The Reagoivat Seed Ep is a collaboration with Finnish Artist Heli Valkama. Heli created 5 images and these images are the seed (response - inspiration) for the lyrical content. The lyrics were created in an automatic writing style, streamed and unedited as they appeared on paper. These words and these words only were used in each song relating to each image.

Musically - Cooperblack has been taking up DJ spots offered recently, this has rubbed off on Reagoivat Seed. The up tempo DJ sets usually include Spoek Mathambo, Buraka Som Sistema, DJ Mujava, Aero Manyelo, Okmalumkoolat, Peaches, The Knife, Cabo Snoop and more...

Heli Valkama is a Finnish visual artist and musician, who explores the organic magic and darkness in nature. She currently resides in Lapland (Northern Finland).

Produced by Cooperblack
Mastered by Left Of Elephant Sound
Cover image by Chloe James
Original seed images by Heli Valkama

Six new wave melancholic, electro-pop songs form Capsule, the latest EP release from prolific Australian music producer and composer, Cooperblack (aka Jeremy Conlon).

Moving away from the muscular, studio-based dance of Return To the Big Eyes (2015), here Cooperblack infuses his unique synthetic pop with a plethora of dark, moody “found sounds” gathered from an extended sojourn to wintery Europe – the frozen polar opposite of his desert home in Yuendemu, Northern Territory.

Composed and gathered where the sun has limited potential, Capsule’s distinct sound was ultimately sculpted and shaped beneath the harsh, endless sun of Central Australia. It’s the perfect counterpoint – and combination.

From ice-breaking ferry rides in Helsinki to lonely flag poles clinking in the icy Berlin wind, these found sounds blend into deep electronic ambient soundscapes. Layered over Cooperblack’s deeply personal lyrics, these sonic elements of ‘random coincidence’ add a particularly haunting quality to his pop-driven compositions.

It’s all about space, and place.

Synths, drum machines, distant voices and the harsh European winter create the distinct sound of Capsule, another excellent and unique musical foray by one of Australia’s most progressive musicians.


Review
‘CAPSULE’ BY COOPERBLACK – EP REVIEW
By Steve ‘Habibi Kelk | April 13 2017 - foldback.com.au

We have written often about the surprising amount of musical talent that is to be found in the Centralian desert of the Northern Territory. An ancient landscape of vast, spectacular and primal nothingness, it keeps producing inspired artists who can take the energy from that timeless expanse and turn out work worthy of any ‘big city’ outfit, whether it be hard rock, metal, alternative or indeed electronica. Cooperblack is one of those artists.

Perhaps it is the almost overwhelming quiet of the Northern Territory arid regions that makes organic sounds stand out more and gives the producer a better ‘ear’ for such things when recording them for their works. Certainly it seems to be the case that working in such a remote location gives Cooperblack (Jeremy Conlon) and his compatriots an edge in that respect – an ability to take from the surroundings the energy of the sun, the flora and fauna and of the traditional peoples of the land.

With Cooperblack’s new EP ‘Capsule’, he has taken that edge with him to wintry Northern Europe – a more opposite place to his desert home at Yuendumu you couldn’t get – and recorded organic sounds of a distinctly different type to weave into his new work. These ‘found sounds’ as they are referred to, randomly and coincidentally mined as the artist’s inspiration took him, were then transported back to the harsh heat and wilderness of Central Australia where they were intertwined with very personal lyrics, synths, electronic beats and ethereal vocals to produce the rapturous ‘synthphony’ of melancholia that is ‘Capsule’. We are guessing that the artist’s mood at the time was as winter-like as his environment and provided that dark inspiration that is both a blessing and a curse. That he blended his sounds back under the harsh solar glare of his remote desert community is juxtaposition taken to the next level. The contrasting vibe is tangible. Kris Keogh of ZZAAPP HQ has mastered the recording with his usual expertise.

Track by track, this EP delivers in spades. ‘When I’m Gone’ has a distinct 70’s feel about it, back in the early days of the synth. While still of dark subject matter, it bounces along with floating, gossamer, plaintive vocals – this track takes this reviewer’s head back to his youth while keeping his feet firmly planted in the now – it rocks. ‘Play On Forever’ kicks it with organic trebly bass underscoring a surreal vocal dreamscape with definite hints of New Order influences peeking through here and there. ‘Flags Wave (Flags Fall)’ uses found sounds overlain on doom-synth to make for an effective moodiness. To this reviewer (especially with the title), it invokes the current spectre of the march of Nationalism around the world towards war. It could almost be a leitmotif for some dark warlord villain. ‘Fail (Face Away)’ broods and moodily meanders along a fuzzy path with muted, distant kick drum – a track made for quiet introspection. ‘Suomenlinna’ is a dark and wintery blend that very well could be the score for a blockbuster space-horror movie, the rumbling organics reminiscent of the low growl of an interstellar warp drive – Kubrick could have found a use for this track were he still with us. The final track, ‘You’re So Sure’ is a bit more poppy and has radio potential. You can move and groove to this, slowly but with purpose. Hypnotic and chill, it is yet still emotionally questioning, in the right measure.

Cooperblack has shown with ‘Capsule’ that he is willing to explore the darker side of his nature, of human relationships and the state of world. It is a departure from his more pumping, dancey and trippy earlier offerings but in no way does that make it less of an EP. It is a softer (but not necessarily gentler) offering, perhaps a catharsis for the artist and could be for the listener as well. ‘Capsule’ is an introspective EP meant for headphones, soft lighting and deep thought.

"wracked with melancholy, steeped in desert dusk and yearning for the urban resonance it's throbbing basslines were conceived in"

"lovely lilting vocals, whispering regrets over snappy drums and super synth leads"

"3-point turn is fuzzy down step, milking massive noisy pads and a familiar pingy snare... elmstonchrists rap floats through the rhythm, a line of smoke leading back to the campfire" J.Tomes


------------------------------------

In a home studio in one of the most remote places on the planet, Jeremy Conlon is busy bringing to life his latest incarnation of Cooperblack. He lives (with his synths and drum machines) in a small indigenous community in the Central Australian desert called Yuendumu, four hours drive north- east of Alice Springs.

Return to The Big Eyes is his first release in a few years, and sees him back in the Northern Territory, his adopted home. Heavy on the synths, crushed drums, pop hooks and falsetto, the EP is five tracks of desert electro-pop, if that’s even a thing.

Return To The Big Eyes is also the sound of Cooperblack coming full circle, returning to electronic music after mutating into a warped, four-piece motorik rock band for their previous album, My Art Is Bleeding.

Written in isolation, this new EP is just Jeremy, his drum machines and synths in a makeshift studio way out in the middle of nowhere. Add into the mix a broken heart, being away from friends and family and you have a perfect recipe for a bunch of melancholic, yet somehow upbeat, electro-pop gems.

The first single, I Assume, features a clay-animation film clip by Melbourne based artist Alex Machin, and the track 3 Point Turn features a guest appearance from stream-of-consciousness female MC elmstonchrist, digitally delivered across the Australian outback, from Darwin to Yuendumu.

Return To The Big Eyes in the sixth release distributed on ZZAAPP Records, an independent record label from Arnhem Land, NT, Australia focusing on underground electronic music from out-of-the-way places.

Pretty Cool Monkeys

NT News Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Ben Langford 30/05/08

It's not a great thing to say, but if the electro-garage band Cooperblack weren't in Darwin they'd be stars. The band will draw a fair crowd to the launch of their new CD "My Art is Bleeding" tonight. But with a unique sound so confident it borders on the crazy, and uber-modern blend of electronics, chords and high pitched languages, the hip cats of Melbourne or Sydney would pack into clubs to hear them play. Luckily for Darwin, the band's leading light, singer-songwriter Jeremy Conlon, has no plans to move away from his adopted hometown. "My Art is Bleeding" is a more rocking affair than previous Cooperblack efforts, a fact that Conlon puts down to much of it being recorded live. With Simon Kormendy on synthesizer and his madly wailing theramin, this is a local band reaching the heights of their powers. And the influence of the German drummer Oliver Budack is clear, with the album's opening track "Affen Titten Geil" among the more bizzare points. the song's title translates as "horny tits monkey", which apparently is a popular way for old-school Germans to say "that's really cool".

3 studio electronic compositions that were re-recorded each week in a gallery setting during the exhibition MELISMA, part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2000. Each composition is attributed to the other artists sharing the gallery space. The studio recordings were played in the gallery via CD, then re-recorded there, compounding the compositions with the natural acoustics of the gallery as well as the incidental sound that happened during the re-recording process. This album contains four versions, from zero inflection (original) to maximum inflection (inflection 3).

Recorded live on Radio 5UV's Local Noise Program, Adelaide, 23rd March 2002, featuring DJ Tr!p and Jeremy Conlon, one of the most electronic Cooperblack line ups yet. Cooperblack would ride their bikes to gigs, complete with ironing board strapped to the pack rack and musical equipment in back packs, Yeah!

DJ Tr!p: beats and noize, sequencing

https://finddjtrip.bandcamp.com

Jeremy Conlon: vocals, vocal delay, bass, synth

Ironing Board: Max Bowden art

Debut EP from Mparntwe / Alice Springs based duo.

Forged in the caves of Goydoooor, Lindsey Mathews and Jez Conlon explore an improvisational process using voice loops, guitars and drums.

They emerge and are born in the moment, resounding in reverb, newly introduced sonic companions, occasionally Mates with friends.

This music is produced and recorded in Arrernte Country - always was and always will be.

"This record started as a collection of living room jams, field recordings from desert ruins and European lowlands, snippets from the live Cloud Sequence video, words and melodies written over different weeks, months, and years, all to melt together in a whisper. Strange Whispers Of Water And Exit has a desire to shape-shift whilst remaining one. A fluid form of solid sound built with synthesisers and song as electronic, experimental pop."


Bio
Forming in 2019, Cloud Sequence is Saar Amptmeijer from Utrecht the Netherlands, and Jez Conlon from Adelaide South Australia, whom both stay and work in Mpartnwe/Central Desert region in the Northern Territory. Both artists hail to music from a fine arts background, which is prominent in their artistic choices and preferences. Cloud Sequence is experimental, electronic pop, often imbued with textural field recordings. Their music is inspired and created on the vast desert lands of the Arrernte peoples whose sovereignty was never ceded.

DnA Sequence.
DnA is a moody sonic bed which holds intimate whispers about fluidity, spoken from the experience as a gender non-confirming person. It's a small and intimate song, written for a close ear and soft understanding of one the endless ways to experience gender.

Roest.
Roest is an experimental pop song about longing, which was written and recorded in times of solitude. The song raises the question of place and responsibility for the experience of loneliness, and a desire for presence.

Nasmaak
Nasmaak is a song about the submerging feeling of being frozen by doubt, in relating to others. The song is structured as a build up, from the soft feelings of love towards an explosive feeling of uncertainty.

Sci fi Movie
Sci fi movie is a speculative song, about meeting one another in a future land as often suggested in classic sci fi TV, movies and literature. It's a fun song, where we speculate and wonder about a place without prisons, without currency and where we can dream and love freely.

Star Stretched
Star stretched is a snippet from a dreamy Cloud Sequence jam. The song is build up as a dream scape, and consists of a call and response between Saar and Jez.

Central Australian music duo Cloud Sequence release Heimwee/Verwee, a stunning new extended play, inspired by physical isolation, a deep respect for Arrernte land and a yearning for a home far away.

Released on iTunes, Spotify and Bandcamp, Heimwee/Verwee comes on the heels of their breathtaking 5-track EP, Rpt. Esc. (January 2020) made from durational live improvisations.

Forming in 2019, Cloud Sequence is Saar Amptmeijer from Utrecht, the Netherlands, and Jez Conlon from Adelaide, South Australia. They live and work in Mparntwe/Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Often imbued with textural field recordings, their music is inspired and created on the vast desert lands of the Arrernte peoples whose sovereignty was never ceded.

“We were in an isolated period in June 2020. In Central Australia we watched the world from a distance. We live on an island, on an island, here,” they say about the making of Heimwee/Verwee.“Heimwee is often associated with homesickness”, they explain about the track’s Dutch-language title. “Verwee is a longing for travel and distant unknown places”.

“It’s a title of longing and total opposites - a longing for home and for adventure,” something sure to resonate with a world now facing isolation and restricted movement, for the foreseeable future.

Coming in at 12:20, Heimwee/Verwee unites raw sounds, performance and atmospheres sourced from “out on a hill on Arrernte land” and Saar’s country of birth, The Netherlands. As Cloud Sequence explain, these were then “manipulated and stretched” in-studio, upon which “synthesizer, guitar, words and other field recordings and found sounds were then layered”.

A powerful poem, spoken by Saar in their mother tongue, completes the overture, reminding us that the world has suddenly become a much bigger, unknown place. Where do we go from here?

Cycling through a series of languid movements, the result is a superbly moving, cavernous musical lament – a sonic ‘depth charge’ that spaciously ignites our innermost vulnerabilities around place, belonging and loss. It drones, it throbs. Dissolves. It is the sound of human frailty.

Heimwee/Verwee is a lush, moody internal conversation between two thoughtful performers who understand the interdependency between nature and humanity. Likewise, it explores the tenuous, illusory hold we have over certainty and the external world. In the blink of an eye eveything can vanish.

“You are listening to a field recording which has been turned into a mood, a textural bed, a sonic poem”, they say. “It speaks about a present common thread, perhaps. Timely or not? We hope you enjoy.”

‘Heimwee/Verwee’ is out now on iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp + all streaming platforms

We hope you enjoy 🖤

All songs on the Rpt. Esc. EP are born from long lasting live improvisations.
Inspired by a field recording, a synth bass, vast desert landscapes, sensitive queer politics, bilingual poetry and all other things.
Thereafter carefully layed-out and puzzled. Edited and Deleted.
Repeat. Escape. Tumbling in an endless process, snapshots taken and released as these 5 tracks.
Melancholic, dreamy, moody, electronic. Imaginative? Experimental?