Laura Chislett & Edward Cowie (b. 1943)
In Two Minds
Duo Menurida
rec. 2023, Ayriel Studios, Whitby, UK
Métier MEX77121 [55]

Métier’s online advertising says that this disc “offers a unique fusion of musical expression and the natural world, inviting audiences to join in this extraordinary sonic exploration created through skilled and instinctive improvisation.”  Also, “this profound ritual of spontaneous outpourings invites listeners on an immersive journey, experiencing the direct transmission of sensory encounters through eight tracks that shape the discovered music of the moment.”

I wish to acknowledge the liner notes and personal communication with Edward Cowie, which helped me write this review.

The word “improvisation” needs a little unpacking. It is often associated with the organ loft and the filling in of awkward gaps in the service. And then there is jazz… In both cases, the performers tend to work within “a prescribed musical world”. They often use a series of melodic and harmonic clichés. Another manifestation of improvisation was in the invention of complex and technically challenging cadenzas for concertos. One thing that it should not be (at least to me) is a jumble of notes chucked around any-old-how.

I asked Edward Cowie what preparation went into the pieces on the programme. He responded that “all effective improvisation would entail something akin to pre-composition”. With these works, each movement was planned in terms of certain “cues” that the performers give to each other, whilst leaving the improvisation as flexible as possible. There are no graphic/notated scores of any sort. The inspiration was the shared experiences of the sounds of the birds, the natural habitats and the paintings by Kandinsky, Rothko, Pollock and Heather Cowie. Even the duration of each number was not fixed beforehand but resulted in a sympathetic response between the players. Each was made in a “continuous and unbroken take”.

The recital opens with the Dawn-Bellbirds. These are imagined to be in an Australian forest as the light slowly emerges from the darkness. The flute indulges in a variety of extended play techniques, before other bird species join in and create a kind of “avian counterpoint”.

An understanding of Kandinsky’s art theories infuses Guten Morgen, Herr Kandinsky! The artist insisted that Points, Line and Planes are “the three basic structural and dynamic paradigms of not only the cosmos and nature but also of music and the visual arts”. The Point is the beginning of all things, the Line is in effect a moving Point, and a Plane represents multiple Lines, producing a composition … Kandinsky reveals how “geometrical, physical, aesthetic, and spiritual concepts coexist naturally”.

Cowie has followed this paradigm in Kandinsky (1995) Kandinsky’s Oboe (2009), both issued on Métier MSV28612. The present number is clearly a cheery greeting to, and an acknowledgment of, the artist’s theories. It is certainly much more satisfying than the theoretical underpinning would suggest.

Leighton Moss wetland nature reserve near Carnforth, Lancashire is famous for its bittern colony. Boom Time – Bitterns at Leighton Moss celebrates the moment in late winter when the male of the species “warms up” before creating his powerful call. Cowie conjures a splendid impression of landscape, mist and sheer stasis, building up to the “boom” and eventually the other birds awakening. It is the longest piece on this disc, at nearly ten minutes. Like Olivier Messiaen, Cowie can manipulate time: the work seems to last forever but contradictorily is over too soon. The bittern has the loudest bird call in the United Kingdom and is often compared to a foghorn, or is like the wind blowing over the top of a gigantic milk-bottle.

Sadly, due to a printing error, the booklet has no commentary on New York – New York Mark Rothko – Jackson Pollock. Edward Cowie gave me a ‘take’ which I quote in full: “The two painters, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, key members of a group of New York painters…worked in hugely diverse ways. Indeed, the personalities of both men could not be more starkly different. Rothko worked slowly and in a constant state of meditative tension, whilst Pollock was filmed working his strange, ferocious, and frenetic ‘dances’ holding a huge paint-dripping brush over a canvas on the ground. There is, thus, an obvious contrast between the steady application of layers of colour forms and delicately blended fringes that separate and join these often-huge geometric planes, and the gradually accelerating cascades and arabesques of paint that form the complex linearity of Pollock’s constructions. Thus, this improvisation plays with these contrasted ways of forming things. Rothko signs off with gentle hymn of colours whilst Pollock ends with a scream or loud slam of paint!”

There are two solo pieces on this disc. Ornitharia explores bird habitat in and around Sydney, Australia. Although this is for solo flute, the sustaining pedal on the grand piano is depressed. Cowie explained to that the flute is often directed at the inside of the piano, sometimes “generating sympathetic vibration and harmonics, much as it would when birds in Australia sing in vast open spaces”.

The second solo, Stonehenge Thunderstorm and Skylark for piano, recalls a visit to the ancient monument with a distant thunderstorm over Salisbury Plain. Throughout, the song of the skylark is heard against the distant noise, before getting gradually quieter and finally fading away. For me, there are considerable echoes of Messiaen in these pages.

Out of curiosity, I looked up Lake Eacham on Google Maps. It looks an idyllic place. The colour of the water at the shores is an inviting aquamarine, with the deeper reaches revealing an “unearthly black and jade colour. The venue is ideal for bathing, sailing and kayaking. Cowie says that the place is “undoubtedly an Aboriginal sacred site for even to the uninitiated, it oozes an atmosphere of primal power – an almost magnetic feeling of life and history in wrapt and wrapped co-dependency.”  He has created a beautiful nocturne which compliments the special mood of the place, along with personal echoes of times past, when he was courting his wife, Heather. It is the most evocative piece on this disc.

The final improvisation is another ‘nocturne’, Dusk/Night Lyrebirds. Once again, it is inspired by Australia. This time it evokes the rainforest haunts of the lyrebird. Cowie writes: “Darkness falls in a rainforest where a chorus of avian ‘goodnights’ are uttered before a solitary lyrebird begins its bewitching and bewitched song.” It is a melancholy sound, nodding to the fragility of this and other avian habitats. Interestingly, the Latin name of the lyrebird is Menurida – the name of the Chislett/Cowie Duo.

The most helpful booklet gives a proficient introduction to the content. An interesting foreword by Cowie discusses the nature of improvisation and puts these eight works into context, both in a performative and creative sense. There follow the notes on the music, except one piece I noted. Laura Chislett gives a personal note. There are the usual resumes of the performers and composer. The insert is illustrated. It features Two Minds, a painting by Heather Cowie.

The recording quality is second to none and compliments the often intimate nature of these improvisations.

I enjoyed this release immensely. If I had not been aware of its improvisatory nature, I am not sure that I would have guessed it. The impact is sensuous, inventive and often fantastic. Edward Cowie is keen to point out that – although the titles are full of meaning for the performers – the listener can make their own sonic pictures and ignore the Notes on the Music. I have not been to the locales mentioned (Leighton Moss excepted) and I am not aware precisely what paintings inspired the music, but I was prepared to use his notes as an aural prompt.

John France

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Contents
Pre Dawn and Dawn: Australian Bell Birds
Guten Morgen, Herr Kandinsky! (Point and Line to Plane)
Boom Time – Bitterns at Leighton Moss
New York-New York Mark Rothko – Jackson Pollock
Ornitharia (Flute Solo)
Stonehenge Thunderstorm and Skylark (Piano Solo)
Lake Eacham Blue
Dusk/Night Lyrebirds

Performers
Laura Chislett (flute), Edward Cowie (piano)