East Wind Reviews
The Light Connection
May 2009 Music Reviews
East Wind; Watching for Rain
East Wind
By: Timothy Cooper; New Piano Age Music; 2008; $14.98; www.new-piano-age.com
East Wind can be heard as “a poetic metaphor for the winds of change blowing
from the Far East, bringing with them new sensibilities, an influx of trade
and seismic global power shifts.” The artist reports that he chose this
title for his second album to reflect the influence of the people, culture,
art and scenery of the Far East and the ancient mystery and power of the
Orient.
I find Cooper's musical creations a breath of fresh air. His other album,
Light on the Water (see TLC November, 2008), inspired by the events of 9/11,
was basically an exploration into the interplay between the light and the
dark, and East Wind , though less somber, also brings out both the tiptoe-light
and the deeper elements of life.
The interplay here is different, however. The thirty original compositions
on this CD start out sparse and simple; from there, they progress into selections
light and delicate as drops of fountain spray—light flirting haiku-like
with life, in short, tender breaths. Listen further, and you find yourself
caressed by a gentle breeze; even further, and the wind blows across the
land with the gentle but profound emotional power of “the tragedies of ancient
cultures, come and gone.”
“I want to help our global society become more peaceful and harmonious,
and one way to do that is to release gentle and positive music into the
world,” Cooper explains.
“I… wanted to infuse the sound of an Asian wind into my piano playing– how
that mercurial wind sounds blowing through bamboo forests at night, whispering
across green seas at dawn, howling over the Great Wall in winter, tangling
with the open fires of the Orient to make them burn brighter, and moaning
with people's sorrow and pain.”
Each of Cooper's CDs presents a complete tableau of distinct and unique
pieces that nonetheless fit together to express a fully textured experience.
Whether you look at this CD as exploring the edges of a new and better reality
or as relaxing background to soothe your weary soul, I think you will find
it inspiring. I know I do.
—Chiwah
Audio Street.net
APRIL 2009
Timothy Cooper Creates Relaxing,
Meditative, Inspirational Piano Music
TIMOTHY COOPER
EAST WIND
This Timothy Cooper album is called East Wind because it was inspired by his many trips to Asia. The titles of some of the 30 tunes give you an idea of specific influences (“Asian Rain,” “Bamboo Forest,” “Slow Peals,” “Wonder Wall”). When he titles a tune “Daylight,” you wonder if he was remembering a sunrise in Mongolia, the Ukraine or Vietnam. Where he has journeyed, you know he has seen “Ancient Moss” (maybe on an old monastery wall) and “Flames in the Wind” from either a cook-fire or religious-ritual somewhere halfway around the world.
This is an entirely solo piano album with no overdubs. There are 30 instrumental pieces, most fairly short in the two-minute range. The music is simple, stark, serene; you might say as pure as freshly-fallen snow. But it also is emotional. You get the idea that Cooper is really tapping into some strong feelings as he plays. “Green Seas” features strong chording. “Silent Streams” is all delicate, high notes. “Clearing” is less than a minute long, but repeats a simple theme a couple of times and is beautiful in its conciseness (the background materials compare the music to a short Japanese haiku poem, and this would probably be a good example of that). “The Dance” is upbeat and perky, while “Once Was 1&2” are very gentle and wistful. “Somehow” contains more notes with the left hand than some of the other pieces, and offers up some beautiful counterpoint between the left and right hands.
Cooper says he has been inspired by other acoustic pianists such as Keith Jarrett, Liz Story, Philip Aaberg and Suzanne Ciani, but I don’t hear a direct comparison with any of them. To some extent Cooper’s improvisational abilities are reminiscent of Jarrett, but Jarrett is a bit more jazzy and his solo piano pieces tend to be quite lengthy (just the opposite of Cooper’s brevity). Cooper calls his record company New Piano Age Music, and that actually might end up being an apt description. It does feel as if Cooper is onto something a bit new, maybe the cutting edge of a fresh style that falls somewhere between sitting down and composing complete melodies and arrangements on one hand, and completely improvising freeform on the other. Cooper says he does a bit of both when recording.
Daily Vault-Albums Reviews
MARCH 2009
Solo Pianist Timothy Cooper Put 30 Tunes On His East Wind CD
TIMOTHY COOPER – EAST WIND
Let me set the stage. Timothy Cooper is a solo pianist. He also heads up
the Worldrights organization out of Washington, DC, and that job takes him
on travels around the world including much time spent in the Far East. Those
travels are the inspiration for this his second CD, appropriately-titled
East Wind. In addition to being a pianist and composer, he is a novelist,
photographer and film-maker (American Film Institute graduate). His main
previous musical experience was as a choirboy when he was growing up singing
in major churches and cathedrals (including the Washington National Cathedral),
and the group he sang with also toured the United States and United Kingdom,
and recorded several albums. Now for the music on this project. There are
30 solo piano pieces, apparently some totally improvised on the spot as
he recorded them, and others where he had a melodic idea before he started.
Most of the pieces are quite short (under three minutes). The shortest selection
is the 42-second “Lark on a Limb” (the music actually seems to capture the
feeling of a tiny bird) and the longest tune is moody and mesmerizing four-and-a-half-minute
“Dawn of Time” (it probably would have worked for the ape-swinging-the-jawbone
scene of the film “2001: A Space Odyssey”). In fact, that tune is so powerful,
it is sort of the aural equivalent of Jackson Pollock splattering bright
globs of paint forcefully onto a canvas. There are too many others to mention
each one, but let me say this is very emotional music full of passion, visual
imagery and spirituality.
New Age Music.com
Review
February 2009
The Gentle East Wind
East Wind is Timothy Cooper's new album. It has over 30 tracks and is almost an hour long. When it comes to solo piano, I feel that short tracks keep the listener on the edge and it is always interesting and changing. The album starts with the title track. It has a gentle Far East feel, but just a small hint really: the track is only a minute long. Track two is darker and filled with emotions. Some of the following songs share both melody and atmosphere, like Silent Stream and Bird Flight, while other are totally different and unique. The atmosphere changes fast, and at the same time there is this feeling of continuity. And that's true art.
In a way it is all about pictures,
moments that are passing by. The listener can almost tell by the music that
Timothy Cooper is interested in photography and film-making. It is in the
movement and shifting focus. The longest track on the album, Dawn of Time,
is a massive 4min38sec long. It has that feeling of creation that the title
implies, like a drama of epic proportions.
The recording quality is very good.
The piano sound is rich and deep, and still the high notes really shines.
The mastering, done by Bluehouse Productions, is simply impressive.
East Wind is perfect background music,
or relaxation music if you will. Still it is much more than easy listening.
The always shifting atmosphere makes it into an interesting listen.
Check out the wonderful video presentation
of the album on New-Piano-Age.com. There you'll also find samples. Be
sure to check out Cooper's other albums as well.
IMPROVIJAZZNATION Review
March 2009
Timothy Cooper - EAST WIND:
I first heard & reviewed Timothy's splendid piano works in issue #83 (his LIGHT ON THE WATER CD). "East Wind" (his second release) chronicles some of his journeys through parts of Asia, and expertly captures some of the same feelings I have had when in those countries. There are moments, in fact, when his tunes inspire memories for me of particular moments of my 17 years over there, so (in that sense) his CD is like "coming home" (to my home away from home) for me. There are some tracks where you can hear Oriental influences in the composition, but more often than not the pieces are clearly stories portrayed by a "non-Oriental" traveling through (albeit in a short and concise way). That comment may not make a lot of sense except for folks who have lived in those cultures, but Timothy will know what I mean, I believe. Many of the keyboardists I know here in the Great Northwest state that "water" influences their playing, and in my more reflective moments on the piano, I find that to be true also. Cooper has admirably achieved his goal of portraying the "winds of change" emanating from the Eastern cultures, most likely through absorbing it and using his exquisite playing talents to paint a sonic vision for listeners unafraid to let themselves (also) become absorbed. A very enjoyable solo piano experience that merits our MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating! Get more information at www.new-piano-age.com
-- Rotcod Zzaj
The Bookwatch
Book Reviews, Book Lover Resources, Advice for Writers and Publishers
The Library CD Music Shelf, MARCH 2009
East Wind
Timothy Cooper
New Piano Age Music
The second solo piano album by Timothy
Cooper, East Wind is a roughly hour-long CD with an exotic Asian influence.
A delicate and emotional listening experience, East Wind seeks to embody
the essence of China's ancient history, the vibrantly hot forests and
jungles of Malaysia, the delicacy classical Eastern poetry, and much more.
An ultimately upbeat music bearing a message of hope and inspiration, East
Wind is highly recommended. 30 tracks, 58.7 minutes.
Muzik Reviews.com
Review, March 2009
Timothy Cooper
East Wind
“I want to help our global society become more peaceful and harmonious, and one way to do that is to release gentle and positive music into the world,” Timothy Cooper explains. His album, East Wind, is inspired by the Far East and how the winds are blowing new sensibilities, trade, and global power around the world. On this release, he wanted to emulate the songs of Asian winds, swishing through bamboo forests, across green seas, and around the Great Wall.
East Wind has thirty tracks, ranging from less than a minute to four and a half minutes long. Each song is meant to rouse up feelings, whether those be of love, serenity, peacefulness, or calm. New Age music is characterized as peaceful music created to provoke inspiration, relaxation, and positive feelings. Not only does Cooper describe his music as such, but it lives up to its description. Some of the pieces were in his mind for a while, and he finally got to develop them into more profound compositions. Others were written while he was at the piano recording this album.
Cooper, as an artist, is more than a pianist. He is also a photographer, novelist, and filmmaker. He is a humanitarian in the true sense of the word. His previous album, Light on the Water was inspired by the tragic events of 9/11, and how America put itself back together thereafter. He explains that the album, “is about fresh winds blowing in the East, but it is also about a new worldwide call for action. It is about human liberation and freedom, renewal and resurgence, creating rather than destroying, and protecting our planet.”
Each track on the album has a different feel but still manages to collectively make one creatively soothing piece. The end of a song and beginning of the next create the ebb and tide feel of the ocean Cooper was aiming for. Sometimes though, the pause is drawn out and breaks the connection to the music for just a moment too long.
You can perceive East Wind as a new age movement to change the world. Alternatively, you can just sit and relax in your living room to it after a long day. Whether it is being played in the background, or being contemplated, this hour-long instrumental album is sure to remind you of the ocean waves and Asian winds. Moreover, while it may not turn you into a peace activist, it will certainly instill tranquility for the time being.
CD INSIGHT REVIEW
March 2009
TIMOTHY COOPER
EAST WIND
You may remember pianist Timothy
Cooper from his debut album, LIGHT ON THE WATER, which went Top 15 on the
international airplay charts for this type of music. Now he is back with
his second CD, EAST WIND.
On his first album, Cooper tried
to capture the various sounds of water into his solo piano performance.
With EAST WIND, he says: “I tried to infuse the sound of an Asian wind into
my piano playing – how that mercurial wind sounds blowing through bamboo
forests at night, whispering across green seas at dawn, howling over the
Great Wall in winter, tangling with the open fires of the Orient to make
them burn brighter, and moaning with people’s sorrow and pain.”
His piano playing is just as poetic
and his descriptions of what he saw and felt during his travels throughout
the Far East. All of the tunes are short (there are 30 of them on one CD),
and the music ranges from forceful and powerful to light and delicate.
So take a listen and hear the notes
ring and the wind whisper and howl.
Cooper’s music is available at stores
as well as online at www.new-piano-age.com,
cdbaby.com, amazon.com
and iTunes.com among other outlets.
MIDWEST RECORD
Review
February 13, 2009
NEW PIANO AGE MUSIC
TIMOTHY COOPER/East Wind: Globe-trotting,
do-gooding, tree-hugger takes his ears to Asia and comes back with a set
of solo piano seeped in Asian elements, like short songs that say what they
have to and get out, and experiences that otherwise shape the playing and
presentation. A smart and sensitive cat that can synthesize what’s going
on around him into something other than impressionistic noodling, Cooper
makes music the left of center and fans of off-beat but solid work will
love and understand. Worth your time if that’s your bag.
Instrumental Pavllion
Review
March 2009
Timothy Cooper - East Wind
"East Wind" (2008) is a
collection of short, solo piano pieces by Timothy Cooper. Some of you may
remember I posted a few tracks from his previous release "Light On
The Water", which was in the top 15 on NAR (New Age Reporter www.newagereporter.com).
Many of the tracks on "East
Wind" are very short, most bring no more than two minutes in length!
Try to think of them as a Japanese haiku poem, a pen and ink drawing or
even a tiny banzai tree, perfect in their sparseness and simplicity. Cooper's
travels to the east has obviously inspired and influenced the music on this
new recording. According to Cooper, "the music on "East Wind"
reflects my belief that there are many wonderful aspects of the Eastern
countries that Westerners can enjoy and embrace, especially culture, art,
scenery, traditions and history. People are people and despite differences
in our cultures, most basic human desires are the same when it comes to
food, clothing, shelter, family, love, freedom, wealth and entertainment".
"East Wind" is a great
release and I have Timothy Cooper and his representation The Creative Service
company to thank for the opportunity to share this music with you. Enjoy!
MainlyPiano.com Review
East Wind
Timothy Cooper
2008 - New Piano Age Music
58.7 minutes
“East Wind” is one of two solo piano
CDs released simultaneously by Timothy Cooper (the other is “Light on the
Water”). “East Wind” is a fascinating collection of thirty short (from 43
seconds to 3 1/2 minutes) piano pieces that were composed as a tribute to
the victims of 9/11 and recorded on a concert grand piano. Open and a bit
on the dark (but not brooding) side, this is music caught in the moment
of creation by an artist who has been involved in music his whole life.
Cooper’s musical career began as a soprano in various boys choirs that recorded
albums and toured the US and abroad. As a teenager, he studied sitar until
he took up piano as a student at The American Film Institute in Los Angeles.
Over the years, Cooper developed his own style of improvisational composition,
and finally began recording his music later in 2001. Most of the pieces
on “East Wind” are quiet and intimate, with the feeling of vast, deep space.
There is nothing harsh or flamboyant about the music, and it works well
with full attention or as a backdrop for other activities. From Cooper’s
website: "I love the piano's ability to create oceanic sound—a
great wash of sustained sound that can seem at once infinite and intimate,
with no borders or boundaries--only the presence of being... Sometimes my
music has no definable beginnings, no absolute endings: only waves upon
waves of sound headed as if for all shores, as in the music of dreams.”
Many improvised albums do not hold together well with repeated plays, but
this one does, revealing more about the music as well as the composer each
time. Most of these musical vignettes have nature themes and their brevity
is impressionistic like watercolor paintings or gesture drawings. Many have
no distinct beginnings or endings, yet the CD is solid and consistent as
a whole entity. Each little piece is distinct and unique, yet each is a
part of the mood, expression, and experience of the whole. I highly recommend
“East Wind” especially to those who enjoy music that is a bit more experimental
and slightly edgy. It is available from www.new-piano-age.com,
amazon.com, iTunes, and
cdbaby.com.
Kathy Parsons
MainlyPiano.com
6/7/08
EAST WIND
87 Microphones
New Age Reporter
- reviewed by RJ Lannan on 5/23/2008
I listened to Timothy Cooper's
two albums, Light on the Water and East Wind fifteen times. That is a total
of fifty-nine solo piano tracks times.. well, you do the math. It took a
while to do it and I am the better for it. And I would not hesitate to do
it again. I like Timothy's no nonsense improvisational style. His approach
is clear and clean just like water, and just as life giving to the spirit.
I got to wondering if he writes music that way I write reviews. The first
impression is the impression that usually lasts. His track titles are plain
and on point. He is a musical interpreter. His style suggests "This
is what I saw and this is what I wrote." Now for some of those 59 tracks.
I realized that each of Timothy's
tracks is like a short poem. They are definitely more than haiku and even
more than quatrains, but with periods of activity and quiescence. If music
can be complicated and simple at the same time, than this is it.
From the album of the same name,
the track East Wind opens the recording with a slightly tempestuous score.
It is not a violent storm, but a blustery omen. As the saying goes, "It
is an ill wind that blows no one any good."
The tune Silent Stream by its very
title is a bit ironic, but the sense is one of gentleness and peace. It
is perhaps one of the best of the thirty tracks on the CD. The gentle flow
winds down and around your mind, drawing you in for a cooling respite. The
song segues nicely into Bird Flight. It is a small, brave bird that challenges
the forces of nature in this warm, melodic poem. The reward is the ability
to fly high above the earth and be master of all below if only for a short
while.
I liked the title Holding Sway. Although
the wording is antiquated, the sentiment is timely. You can be influenced
by many things. Today it is mostly the media. Fortunately, in this case
it is Timothy’s music. We are invited to stop and smell the roses, carpe
the diem, and live life to the fullest. Geologically, the extent of a human
life on planet Earth is but a wink and a nod to a mountain.
Dawn of Time is the best of the best
from the album. We hear no seismic upheaval, nor any volcanic explosions
within, but merely a breath of life from Mother Earth. It is a song of awakening,
of birth and of knowledge.
On the whole, I found Light on the
Water to be a bit more somber than East Wind, but every artist has a serious
period....
87 microphones is the number it took
to make the recordings, a quantity noteworthy in itself somewhat like the
generous amount of tracks on the collections. Both albums, East Wind and
Light on the Water offer a plethora of emotionally charged tunes that will
suit any mood or perhaps stimulate the change of one. I liked both CDs and
several times played one right after the other for a lengthy session with
my inner self. I was rewarded every time.
Rating: Very Good Very Good
Shots in the Dark
Shotgun Reviews
MARCH 2009
Timothy Cooper's East Wind CD
Inspired By People, Culture and Scenery Of Far East
Timothy Cooper
East Wind
Musician Timothy Cooper believes there is a strong wind rising from the Asian continent and Pacific Rim that is bringing new sensibilities, trade and power shifts. Titled EAST WIND, his second solo piano album was influenced by the people, culture, traditions, art and scenery of the Far East where he has traveled for many years with the Worldrights organization.
Those travels to the Far East are evident in the music on this recording (30 tunes, most short and to-the-point). As his song titles indicate, while traveling he has seen Asian rain, ancient moss, green seas, bamboo forests, the Great Wall of China, open fires throughout the Orient, and the seasons changing globally (as several tunes indicate).
My favorite pieces are “The Dance,” “Lark on a Limb” and “Summer Shimmers.”
This gently-powerful recording sounds better and better the more you listen to it. It takes a while to get used to the short pieces, but soon you realize this is much better than long, meandering, boring instrumental music. Cooper says what he has to say, and then he moves on. That is a pretty good concept.
Cooper’s CDs and downloads can be
purchased in real stores and online at www.new-piano-age.com,
cdbaby.com, amazon.com
and iTunes.com among others.
Review Centre
Speaking from Experience
MARCH 2009
TIMOTHY COOPER
EAST WIND
NEW PIANO AGE MUSIC
It is an interesting concept to use one of the Western world’s greatest instruments, the acoustic grand piano, to make music portraying the people, sights, sounds, smells and feelings gathered by a westerner traveling extensively throughout the Far East. You would expect to hear some Chinese pipa lute, Japanese shakuhatchi flute or Filipino Gamalon orchestra to capture the flavor. But, no, American musician Timothy Cooper simply uses solo piano, and he makes it work. It is kind of amazing when you think about it. But his job working for the Worldrights organization has taken him throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim for long trips over the past ten years or so, and he soaked up the atmosphere while he was there, and then went home and poured it all into this piano music.
When he titles songs “Asian Rain,”
“Green Seas” or “Bamboo Forest,” he is giving obvious guideposts to where
he was and what specifically inspired that piece of music. He uses the sounds
of a piano to capture a wide variety of Far Eastern scenery and weather
– deep, rich, resonating chords one moment, then a light touch as he scampers
around some high notes to indicate a small bird or sunlight or starlight.
You feel like he goes into a deep trance when he is composing/playing/improvising
this music. It’s a special place worth visiting, and it’s all done on the
piano with no overdubs.
You can find the music on this CD
(and his previous album) online at his record company website (new-piano-age.com)
or at the regular places (iTunes, amazon, cdbaby, etc).
Jazz, Blues, World music news
RUSSIA’S TOP DISTRIBUTOR OF NEWS
ABOUT ALTERNATIVE & INSTRUMENTAL MUSICS
MARCH 2009
"Timothy Cooper's Solo Piano
Pieces Are Short, Simple, Serene and Nearly Perfect"
MARCH 2009
Timothy Cooper's Latest Album Inspired By Far East Travels, Forests,
Birds, Rain, Different Times Of Day,
and Changing Seasons
Timothy Cooper named his latest musical
recording EAST WIND as a metaphor for the positive changes he sees rising
from the Asian continent and the Pacific Rim, and beginning to sweep the
globe bringing more human freedoms and construction of a better world. He
has seen these winds of change blowing from up close because of his other
job, as Executive Director of the Worldrights organization, which has caused
him to travel extensively in the Far East over the past dozen years.
Cooper took everything he saw, felt
and learned from those travels and poured the emotion into his solo piano
EAST WIND album. He especially paid attention to the natural world around
him on these journeys - the oceans, the rain, the snow, the sunlight, a
bamboo forest, birds, a fire burning, moss that looks like it has been growing
on a stone for hundreds of years.
Close your eyes, take a listen and
let that faraway imagery come forth.
KEYS & CHORDS
THE ROCKMAGAZINE FOR THE MUSIC-LOVER WITH A BROAD TASTE
MARCH 2009
TIMOTHY COOPER: EAST WIND CD-Review
This musician tries to set up a better
world. His tools for that are his music, art and films, as well as his job
as Executive Director for Worldrights, an organization which works for human
rights. For that job he has traveled much, and his trips to Asia and the
Far East produced the inspiration source for this music, which stands entirely
in the shadow of old mysteries and the strength of the east. “I want to
help our global society become more peaceful and harmonious, and one way
to do that is to release gentle and positive music into the world. I used
the title ‘East Wind' as a poetic metaphor for the wind of change blowing
from the Far East, bringing with them new sensibilities, an influx or trade
and seismic global power shifts. The Far East is on the rise today and is
of consequence. But on a simpler level, I also wanted to infuse the sound
of an Asian wind into my piano playing - how that mercurial wind sounds
blowing through bamboo forests at night, whispering across green seas at
dawn, howling over the Great Wall in winter, tangling with the open fires
of the Orient to make them burn brighter, and moaning with people's
sorrow and pain," he says. He brings us this solo piano CD on which
there are separately thirty music pieces with various lengths. Most of it
is quiet and subdued, and shows the influence of different Asian art forms.
"Over many years traveling throughout Asia, the spirit or Far Eastern
culture -- and its serene contemplative aesthetic -- found its way into
my subconscious. Those travels deeply affected me. I remember riding on
buses packed with peasants in southern China in winter and chugging up old
mountains covered by rounded tea trees; taking slow-moving trains down through
the hot forests and jungles of Malaysia; and motorboating along the coastline
of Northern Vietnam and passing by the breathtaking Kastral limestone formations
jutting out of the South China Sea like ghostly visions in mystic dreams."
The music is meditative and the tracks are each complete but work well with
each other. For sensitive souls.
Patrick Wiele ???
MUSICWATCH
MARCH 2009
Timothy Cooper - East Wind
Timothy Cooper's new album, East Wind, is subtitled 'New piano age music', which for many will mean they think of it as new age music. And they may be right, but on hearing this album they may change their tune [sorry, pun intended]. Over the twenty-nine tracks and new sixty minute duration of this CD you have a collection of sparse, almost experimental miniatures carved from the piano keyboard. Tracks last from half a minute to perhaps two minutes, the former being something of a surprise in these days of ten minute plus instrumental epics. There is something of the modern jazz music created by Keith Jarrett and pianists from the Nordic jazz school. You can imagine this music being created somewhere in the Arctic circle while watching icebergs with polar bears drift slowly by. I am obviously playing around with conceits here but this music is so spare, so condensed and impressionistic that I don't think there are even any double tracked pieces. East Wind certainly goes against the lush grain of the usual new age recordings to the point where one has almost to fill in the silent gaps. I think its beauty and relevance is only going to find a certain type of listener - it's definitely not the type of wallpaper music for use in whole food restaurants and organic juice bars. This is cerebral music and it requires time and space to be listened to properly. For more information about this artist and album and availability visit:
From: www.the-borderland.co.uk
EAST WIND
April 2008
Author: RadioIndy.com
"Solo Pianist Timothy Cooper brings you 'East Wind,' an album of deep concept and delicate intimacy... The sound and arrangements are vast, weightless and deep…If you like solo piano compositions and music fit for relaxation and retrospect, you'll love this wonderfully-produced collection."
World’s #1 Music Forum!
MARCH 2009
Cooper's East Wind CD Influenced by Asian Rain and Great Wall of China
Timothy Cooper
East Wind
New Piano Age Music
Available at Amazon, CDbaby and iTunes
Solo pianist Timothy Cooper explains his album like this: "Over many years
traveling throughout Asia, the spirit of Far Eastern culture -- and its
serene contemplative aesthetic -- found its way into my subconscious. Those
travels deeply affected me. I remember riding on buses packed with peasants
in southern China in winter and chugging up old mountains covered by rounded
tea trees; taking slow-moving trains down through the hot forests and jungles
of Malaysia; and motorboating along the coastline of Northern Vietnam and
passing by the breathtaking Kastral limestone formations jutting out of
the South China Sea like ghostly visions in mystic dreams." With descriptions
like that, perhaps Cooper should try his hand at poetry too. But for now
you can enjoy his piano playing. One of the remarkable things about this
recording is that it is a single CD (about an hour long) with 30 selections
on it! They fit because many of them are only a couple of minutes long.
That concept actually works pretty well with solo piano pieces because Cooper
gets right to the point, fools around with the melody a little, and then
ends it before the listener can begin to lose interest. So you find yourself
actually studying these short-and-sweet little ditties like they are gemstones
wet and glistening in the sunlight. Three of the tunes are repeated in different
versions. The better material and the more melodic pieces seem to come on
the second half of the album (the first part has a few selections that are
a little more ambient). My favorites are almost a trilogy about two-thirds
of the way through ("Daylight/Dawn of Time/Before the Dawn"). It would be
easy to write this CD off as simply good relaxation and meditational music,
but there feels like there is something deeper going on here. Take a listen
and maybe you will feel it too.