Global Skies
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley December 18, 2017
Artist – Timothy Cooper
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https://timothycooper.net
You can read a great deal into music and as with all of Timothy Cooper’s compositions for solo piano, a great deal has been the basis for his inspiration. Global Skies is no exception. As a man who travels worldwide in work leading a consortium of major international companies, in an effort to help low lying nations in Asia mitigate the devastating impact of rising sea levels, he sees a great deal environmentally that has been damaged and so very little being undertaken to repair the damage.
He is a campaigner for a more peaceful and harmonious global society and truly believes gentle and positive music can be one of the many influences, as well as a call to action in regard to human freedom and liberation. A big call maybe, but one that has considerable merit, as it has been proven scientifically that music has immense healing benefits, which even in a small way can harbour in change, which can then become a trickle and then a wave.
The titles of the tracks reflect various cities of the world where one or several aspects have encouraged him to compose a piece in tribute to the time, place and movement that remains in his memory. Singapore Sunrise is symbolic of a definitive moment when love of place arrives in a distant land; a blinding sunrise, softly falling rain and freshness born of a storm, peculiar only to the tropics.
Geneva Moonlight Rainbow is a polarising piece as it is created in reflection to the polarising aspects of love and hate, ecstasy and anguish – the absolute opposites of emotion; not satisfied with the first offering Cooper has included it as a reprise towards the end of the album, in tribute to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Bach’s influence over Coopers musical style.
Based around walking new pathways, the title track Global Skies encourages overcoming fear and prejudice, facing change, establishing integration and acceptance on a global basis.
Concluding this album is a piece written and included on an previous album Solo Piano Songs of Peace, titled The Light After, a piece he considers as his ‘anthem’, and one written to ‘celebrate peace following the tragedy and ravages of senseless war’.
Overall the music has sombre tone, a reflective and introspective influence which perhaps best illustrates the sad and sorry state the world has become due to politics, man’s greed and inhumanity. Underlying the fractious tones there is the gentle pulse of hope, change and peace, slowing rising over the plains and hills to create a new day, a new dawn and a new beginning.