Composer Julie Cooper has had a successful career as a writer of scores for British film, television, and theater. Here, she steps out with a solo album of rather cinematic music inspired in a general way by meditations during the coronavirus pandemic and its mood of enforced quiet. The program consists of a Contemplation Suite made up of music for four dayparts, an introductory Continuum with spoken word by actress Adjoa Andoh ( Bridgerton ), and single works with descriptive titles ("Life in Stillness," "Galilean Moons"). ...
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Composer Julie Cooper has had a successful career as a writer of scores for British film, television, and theater. Here, she steps out with a solo album of rather cinematic music inspired in a general way by meditations during the coronavirus pandemic and its mood of enforced quiet. The program consists of a Contemplation Suite made up of music for four dayparts, an introductory Continuum with spoken word by actress Adjoa Andoh ( Bridgerton ), and single works with descriptive titles ("Life in Stillness," "Galilean Moons"). Some of the pieces are scored for a small orchestra and played by the Oculus Ensemble, while others are for piano, played by Cooper herself or by Nicholas McCarthy. The piano is in an Einaudi vein, and the primary audience for the music may overlap with that for his New Age-tinged sounds. Cooper executes the style well, avoiding the trap of having too many pieces of similar tempo (consider the perky Calliope), and ornamenting things with soloists like Andoh, violinist Elena...
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