Our Story

The journey of eloquent begins in the year 2001, when the discovery of MP3.com was made. The site encompassed a wealth of musical artists without vocalists, or in search of vocalists. Beginning as the solo effort of Steven Cochran, eloquent collaborated with various artists, then settled on a few to record the debut album ‘Future Pop’ in 2003.

As work began on the debut eloquent release “Future Pop”, Steven worked with Patrik Sjöström of “A twice blessed man” from Sweden on a couple tracks. With his appealing “retro-synthpop” sound, they decided to form the synthpop duo Royal Visionaries. Their first release “Back to Yazoo” has been released with much acclaim. In addition, they have appeared on several compilations. New releases for 2017/8 can be found on iTunes including a great new single "Peace Rain Down".

As preparation and consideration for artists to collaborate with began for the follow-up to the successful “Future Pop” release, and the continuing search for a permanent music partner ensued, Steven met Randall Erkelens at “A Different Drum’s 1st Annual Synthpop Music Festival” in 2004. Randall was performing with his darkwave/synthpop band Tristraum. The two began a friendship and eventually collaborated on a song that was originally slated to appear on the debut Tristraum album. After recording “Carte Blanche” together, the two quickly realized that a partnership was unavoidable. Steven was searching for a permanent music partner and Randall needed an outlet for writing lighter, dance-oriented synthpop songs.

Becoming a duo, and being signed to Section 44 Records in 2005, the Los Angeles / Denver based eloquent opened for the electronic band Provision, and later in the year performed at “A Different Drum’s Second Annual Synthpop Music Festival”, which involved 12 bands performing over a 2 day period. Carousel of Life was Steven and Randall's first full-length album as Eloquent.

Randall began his musical journey in college dj-ing four nights-a-week at a dance club and had a regular show on the campus radio station. After graduating, Randall co-founded Twitch Remix Service in San Francisco. Twitch released over 25 double albums, compilation CD’s and various dj loop tools geared towards the underground dj. Twitch held remixes for D.A.F., Celebrate the Nun, The Prodigy, The Shamen, The Orb, Prefab Sprout, Moby, Anything Box and Front 242 to name a few.

After six years of Twitch, Randall partnered with Pierre Norman and Krystyna Eller to form Tristraum. Their first single ‘Shiver’ was released in Spring 2004 and was followed-up with ‘First Embrace’ in 2005. The trio began work on their debut album ‘Gray’ while producing a string of remixes for other artists that include Underworld, Color Theory, Project X, T.O.Y., Somegirl, Assemblage 23, Fiction 8, Fr/action, Sasha and Echo Image. Randall and Pierre formed Section 44 Records to release The Fixx and Dead or Alive synthpop tributes, the ‘4x4’ series and upcoming Tristraum releases. Tristraum can be found on iTunes. A remix album is planned for 2020. Randall performed with'80s band Naked Eyes, A Different Drum's The Dignity of Labour and Old School ('80s cover band).

Eloquent currently enjoy great success with radio and club play around the world, having something to offer for every fan of electronic music, with an ever changing blend of sound, be it electro, new wave, darkwave, synthpop, ebm, industrial and several other flavours of the electronic genre. With the release of "Surrounded by Machines" in 2018, it makes five studio albums released. Three Maxi CDs with remixes from SBM were released in December, 2019 titled "Surrounded by Remixes."

Eloquent has played shows in USA & Costa Rica and is heard worldwide on various synthpop radio stations including Radio Sol in Israel. Eloquent has performed with Assemblage 23, Book of Love, Anything Box, Leiahdorus, The Dignity of Labour, The Echoing Green, B-Machine, Provision, Eminent Sol, Primitive Programme and more.

The most recent studio album is titled "reDISCovered" (2022) with 15 cover songs selected by Steven and Randall. It includes songs by The Carpenters, OMD, Depeche Mode, Alice Dee Jay, Mirrors, Freddy Fender, Blancmange, Human League, Lime, and more.