Edward this was a beautiful score the entire album. Very influential to me as a composer. I also really enjoyed your score to Passengers. Well done!

Space-themed Classical Music

A Waste Land Companion is, as its title implies, an addendum to Boris Rogowski‘s
album The Waste Land which was released in February 2023 on Piano and Coffee
Records. A meditation on the infamous eponymous 1922 poem by T.S. Eliot, The
Waste Land traces its psychological journey through a barren world in search of lifegiving
water as well as its physical journey through London on the zenith of
Modernism.

During the recording sessions for the album—whose sound is characterised by the
interplay between a string quartet, flute and a collection of specifically created,
deeply warped and tape-weathered samples—over 20 pieces were recorded.
Rogowski had originally intended to use all of them in chronological order, beginning
with the famous part about April being the „cruellest month“. However, it turned out
that a shorter playlist and a strictly musical order worked better for the album.
Rogowski decided to focus on the string-centred pieces to give the album a dreamlike,
hypnotic pull. However, as he valued the shorter, piano-based pieces just as
much, the idea for a companion (mini) album was born almost immediately.

It was a most sensible decision: Chamber gems like „The Hyacinth Girl“ and „A
Wicked Pack of Cards“, mixing English folklore with nods to Richard Wagner’s Tristan
and Isolde, might have gotten lost between the dark, monolithic soundscapes of the
album. Here, however, framed by works for solo piano and harmonium, they are
allowed to shine. A Waste Land Companion begins and ends with two piano pieces
only loosely connected to T.S. Eliot’s poem: „Dear Jessie (to Jessie Laidlay Weston)“ is
an ethereal miniature in reverence of the brilliant English medievalist whose book
From Ritual to Romance, a historical examination of the King Arthur legend, greatly
influenced Eliot while working on The Waste Land. „Universe on a shoestring“ is even
serener, a kind of exhalation after a long and arduous journey. It was the last piece
Rogowski composed during his concluding writing session in the mountains of the
island of La Palma. Here, close to the GTC, the world’s largest optical telescope, the
universe seemed closer than anywhere else on earth—and the grim world of The
Waste Land already a distant memory.

Bandcamp

Universe on a Shoestring

The Storm

"A Reason More To Smile" la escribí pensada y dedicada especialmente a la mejor mujer que jamás he conocido, la mujer que me ha dado su amor incondicional desde siempre, y de quien he aprendido incontables cosas, quien ha sido mi ejemplo a seguir en la vida y quien sé que siempre estará ahí para mí. Mi mamá estaba pasando por momentos difíciles con su familia cuando yo compuse esta canción, y a mí me dolía muchísimo verla así, no sabía como reconfortarla y de alguna manera acompañarla en su dolor tan profundo. Fue entonces que se me ocurrió hacer esta canción, intentado darle un abrazo de una de mis maneras favoritas: mediante la música.

Es por eso que compuse esta canción, que está dedicada especialmente a mi mamá, la mejor de todas ❤️

A Reason More To Smile

K-Pax

Bluebird (K-Pax (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack))

Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector

One Earth, One People, One Love (From Sun Rings)

Karajan Espectacular

R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30: I. Prelude. Sonnenaufgang (Recorded 1983)

Rosetta

Lucida

The Theory of Everything (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

A Model of the Universe

Bluebird (K-Pax (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack))

Edward Shearmur

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