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The Chronicle Review Corner

This is another covid-inspired album, this time mainly on the violin (the ubiquitous Peter Sheppard Skærved).

In the sleeve notes Cowie writes that in the first lockdown he realised that “more or less” a;; his patterns of normal life would be either disrupted or suspended – concerts, masterclasses, workshops and recordings all gone. Happily, he lives in south Cumbria, with its majestic landscape, so he had woodland, wetland and pastures to walk and noted that the birdsong was stunning – who remembers that explosion of wildlife that the first lockdown brought?  The roads were almost silent, and the people all gone.

Unlike the Niels Rønsholdt album [also reviewed in this issue] – similarly lockdown and bird inspired – Cowie names the birds he is writing about – kingfisher, great crested grebe, dipper, bittern – and the piano (Roderick Chadwick) and violin then play something approximate to that bird during the track.

It’s a little harsher on the ear that the Rønsholdt although it contains more wit and even a couple of jocular moments but it’s similar in that you don’t need to know anything about birds to enjoy it as a piece of music. As Chadwick writes in the sleeve notes, “This is meditative music, not courtesy of being ambient per se, but because each musical idea has ample space in which to be experienced.”