LaFolia

At this release’s center is an autobiographical solo for violin, GAD, which reflects the composer’s wresting with creative anxiety. In some ways, the challenges are on the surface in this lively, dissonant music. In these pieces, Cowie expresses his conviction that music is a biological phenomenon, that music ought to reflect nature. But instead of Coates’ arcing smoothness, or John Luther Adams’ lulling tonality, we receive continual surprises, multi-faceted filigree, and material unfolding at independent tempi. As proven here, Cowie’s language is boldly consistent. The Mature Sixth quartet, whose movements each represent one of the four winds, is easily comprehensible. The thread in Dungeness Nocturnes is harder to prize out, one need not be aware Nature is at the core to appreciate the continually changing vistas. Crystal Dances finds the quartet functioning as a unit. Ahead of notating a piece, Cowie, will create prefatory paintings, and several are reproduced in the booklet.

—Grant Chu Covell