Organist Carson Cooman plays Peter Garland’s “plain songs” (after Robert Creeley) « New Music Buff

Any release by composer/musicologist Peter Garland is a reason to take notice. The same can be said for organist Carson Cooman and, for that matter, Cold Blue recordings. Add to that the inspiration gleaned from poet Robert Creeley and I dare say we have a major event begging to sound from your favorite speakers or headphones.

Cold Blue is a visionary record label from Southern California. You owe it to yourself to peruse their releases available from various sources. But I digress.

Carson Cooman is an organist and composer whose lovely recordings of new music for organ appear regularly in my YouTube feed. It is most fitting that he has commissioned these fine works.

Peter Garland is known both as a musicologist (most famously known for his scholarship on the music of Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas) and a composer with a varied and unique body of work that might be described as “gently avant-garde”. His work definitely deserves your attention.

These seven tracks ranging in length from about 5-8 minutes are inspired by the poetry of Robert Creeley. These are not vocal settings, they are musical impressions or perhaps reactions to his work. As such these “tone poems” are characteristic of Garland’s deeply felt and personal style.

Adding this disc to the Cold Blue catalog is yet another “brick in the wall” in the overall sonic tapestry that defines the vision of this label and the loosely defined group of California composers generically categorized as “ambient”. And while that term carries connotations of mediocrity, Garland, Cold Blue, and Cooman are anything but mediocre. This is a lovely production and a valuable addition to the recorded repertoire.