Stunning performance by Max Cooper

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Max Cooper at WAC. Photo courtesy of Antony Hopker.

Max Cooper, Warwick Arts Centre, 15 May 2026

Review by Antony Hopker

Live electronic music can be something of an acquired taste. The performance is generally watching the artist mixing, flicking switches, triggering sequences. Cynics may say that you’re not watching anything live as it’s all pre-programmed.

Max Cooper blew any such notions away with a stunning visual show where he laid down the tracks to a dazzling montage of 3D art and images. Performing behind a giant screen with a second smaller screen behind him, his mix of ambient, electro and dance music filled the Butterworth Hall, sometimes using the entire venue as his canvas.

This was a show commissioned for the Royal Albert Hall and now touring some perhaps unlikely halls known better for classical music. But the performance needed a stage that big to have the amazing impact it did.

Sensational sound and images. Photo courtesy of Antony Hopker.

There were perhaps seven or eight sequences over the two-hour set, picking up different themes and adopting different styles of music. Apart from a roar from the crowd for a shorter, drum and bass-oriented piece near the end for an old favourite, the audience reaction was probably best determined by the number of pictures being taken.

And the consensus was there: the more ambient sounds with images from nature won the day. Layers of sound washing over you with sea bugs evolving before your eyes. Other themes included architecture, the stresses of modern life, apocalyptic climate change and a dazzling array of digital images. There really was a lot going on.

An absorbing evening. Photo courtesy of Antony Hopker.

So much so that the support act, Michael Diamond, probably wasn’t needed. A slightly offbeat mix of urban sounds and organic imagery was interesting enough, but pushed the start time for Max Cooper back to 9pm - not unreasonably late for a gig but with portions of crowd leaving before the end perhaps for a bus (and the rather attritional seating of the Butterworth Hall making a two hour set a bit of a challenge for some) it could have been timed differently.

It was an absorbing and enjoyable night though, with the fun of playing with some digital gadgets such as a theremin courtesy of Coventry’s Deliaphonic project at the start. The city has a burgeoning music scene and Max Cooper’s show reminded us of its connection to electronica at its most innovative.

Discover more from Warwick Arts Centre: https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/