Julie Cooper: Continuum

So many musicians and composers have grappled with the strangeness of lockdown: our loss of freedom, the mourning of our loved ones and the shattering of our personal and professional lives. Julie Cooper’s breathtaking album—beautifully orchestrated and performed, and intimately recorded—brings so many of these feelings to the surface. Narrated by British actor and Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh, Continuum recalls the eerie periods of stasis, silence, loneliness and separation, accompanied by a soaring soundtrack. Contemplation Suite takes the listener from dawn to dusk and into sleep, soprano Grace Davidson’s golden voice gilding Cooper’s cinematic music. “Life in Stillness” and “Galilean Moons”—composed for left-hand alone pianist Nicholas McCarthy—encapsulate the unnerving calm that many of us experienced, while “The Cold Earth Slept Below”, setting a poem by Shelley, is a stunning lament on the barrenness of winter.