Biography
Telefon Tel Aviv filters an array of powerful emotions into experimental electronic music via intricate, forward-thinking production techniques. Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper, who had been friends since high school, launched the project in New Orleans during 1999. A four-track demo reached John Hughes III’s Hefty imprint, prompting the September 2001 release of their debut album Fahrenheit Fair Enough, whose fractured yet tuneful IDM instrumentals earned widespread praise and a loyal following. The record appeared less than two weeks after the limited Midwest premiere of New Port South, a film scripted by James Hughes that incorporated several TTA pieces alongside tracks from Slicker—the Hughes-assisted side project—Eustis’s own Benelli endeavor, and the duo’s remix of Nine Inch Nails’ “Even Deeper.” An EP titled Immediate Action #8, containing reworkings by Prefuse 73 and Slicker, surfaced the following year.
The January 2004 album Map of What Is Effortless introduced tougher, more cinematic arrangements infused with contemporary R&B accents, featuring vocal appearances from Lindsay Anderson and Damon Aaron. After weathering Hurricane Katrina, the duo resurfaced in early 2009 on Ellen Allien’s BPitch Control label with Immolate Yourself, a meticulously constructed collection of brooding, synth-centered pop. Its reception was overshadowed by Cooper’s accidental death, which took place between the German and American release windows. Eustis subsequently maintained Telefon Tel Aviv on his own while pursuing outside work, including stints with Nine Inch Nails and Puscifer; he also issued material as Sons of Magdalene, produced tracks for Tropic of Cancer, teamed with Turk Dietrich under the Second Woman moniker, and co-founded the Black Queen. Further TTA activity included a Lusine “Arterial” remix and the Vatican Shadow collaboration “Rejoice,” contributed to the #savefabric compilation.
Ghostly International issued an expanded fifteenth-anniversary edition of Fahrenheit Fair Enough in 2016 and simultaneously restored Map of What Is Effortless to digital circulation. The project’s first full-length in ten years, the richly textured and atmospheric Dreams Are Not Enough, emerged in 2019.
The January 2004 album Map of What Is Effortless introduced tougher, more cinematic arrangements infused with contemporary R&B accents, featuring vocal appearances from Lindsay Anderson and Damon Aaron. After weathering Hurricane Katrina, the duo resurfaced in early 2009 on Ellen Allien’s BPitch Control label with Immolate Yourself, a meticulously constructed collection of brooding, synth-centered pop. Its reception was overshadowed by Cooper’s accidental death, which took place between the German and American release windows. Eustis subsequently maintained Telefon Tel Aviv on his own while pursuing outside work, including stints with Nine Inch Nails and Puscifer; he also issued material as Sons of Magdalene, produced tracks for Tropic of Cancer, teamed with Turk Dietrich under the Second Woman moniker, and co-founded the Black Queen. Further TTA activity included a Lusine “Arterial” remix and the Vatican Shadow collaboration “Rejoice,” contributed to the #savefabric compilation.
Ghostly International issued an expanded fifteenth-anniversary edition of Fahrenheit Fair Enough in 2016 and simultaneously restored Map of What Is Effortless to digital circulation. The project’s first full-length in ten years, the richly textured and atmospheric Dreams Are Not Enough, emerged in 2019.
Albums
Dreams Are Not Enough
2019
The Birds
2012
You Are the Worst Thing in the World
2010
Immolate Yourself
2010
Exit Music - Songs with Radio Heads EP 4
2006
Map of What Is Effortless
2004
Fahrenheit Fair Enough
2001
Singles
