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To get a sense of just how prolific a composer Carson Cooman is, consider that the latest release of his organ music – scarcely the only type he writes – is the 14^th in a series. Erik Simmons is methodically working his way through a great deal of Cooman’s organ oeuvre, focusing in this case on sacred and secular works dating to the last decade. Although organ music is itself something of a niche preference, it clearly resonates, both literally and metaphorically, for Cooman (born 1982), who has a fine sense of the organ’s capabilities and a clear comprehension of the many styles that can be used for organ works.

Cooman’s poise and classically inflected style show here in Fantasia canonica (2019) and Two from the British Isles (2013), the stately Prelude on “Kingsfold” and animated Postlude on “Hyfrydol.” Impressionism comes to the fore in Three Autumn Sketches after a Watercolor by Maria Willscher (2017), the first quiet and moody, the second more dissonant and featuring clever use of the instrument’s sonic capabilities, and the third chordal and crepuscular.

Simmons fully explores the tonal and emotional colors of these pieces and, indeed, all the works on this disc, next offering the strongly emphatic A St. Patrick Silhouette (2020), then the equally strongly accented St. Michael Antiphonies (2015). After this come two entirely secular works from 2020, Desert Marigold (featuring delicate tone-painting) and Preludio del ricordo (whose boldness makes for an effective contrast). The disc concludes with a return to the classical poise of Fantasia canonica by presenting Suite circulaire (2018) – a well-built Praeludium, contemplative Ricercare, and suitably virtuosic final Toccata. Cooman moves without apparent effort between tonality and considerable dissonance, between comparatively strict adherence to old forms and fantasia-like development of newer ones. The organ used for this recording – a 2014 instrument at a church in Billerbeck, Germany – fits the music particularly well, and Simmons’ comfort with and advocacy of the material comes through consistently. Fourteen discs (so far) of contemporary organ music are, by any measure, a very considerable library – and testimony both to Cooman’s skill in creating the material and Simmons’ in performing it.