Performance of Delphi by Evan Ware. Recorded live by Jonathan Chapman Cook on Tuesday, November 5th, 2013 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Visit http://evanware.com for more about Evan and his music!

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Evan Ware - Delphi (2002/rev. 2013)

Recorded live in Dalton Recital Hall at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, on May 25th, 2009.

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J.S. Bach - Chromatic Fantasy And Fugue in D minor, BWV 903

Recorded at R.E. Lee Episcopal Church in Lexington, VA on 12 March, 2015.

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Improvisation: Embers

Music for the Vernal Equinox: a musical journey presented by Jonathan Chapman Cook, composer and pianist

Part I: From Darkness Into Light

The Northern Hemisphere's Vernal Equinox falls on March 20th or 21st each year. This is the day when the sun orbits directly around the Earth's equator, and night and day are of the most equal lengths the world over. North of the equator, it marks the first day of Spring. This day has held great significance in agricultural societies for thousands of years. Many ancient calendars mark the Northward Equinox as the start of a new year, the great Egyptian Sphinx faces the sunrise on this day, and many ceremonies and rituals the world over have and continue to occur in celebration of the coming of new life and light on this day. In the Occident, Easter Sunday, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

My desire in presenting this series of recitals was to discover for myself the spiritual and symbolic power of the Vernal Equinox in a way that was both deeply personal as well as shared with friends, and in that sense, communal. I wanted to put myself through a trial: a journey, and take others along with me, in hopes that it might find meaning beyond my own experience, in the lives of others. These two concerts were given in two unique and extraordinarily beautiful spaces for two very different audiences-- the first in a dimly lit church very late in the evening, and the second in a large and radiant living room with a fire crackling and the glow of sunset encroaching. Each performance was deeply influenced by my relationships and energetic correspondences with those spaces and audiences. Thus, these recordings represent a mono-sensory window into what could only be fully experienced with all five senses, by me, or any of those present, one time only. However, it is my hope that in presenting these on CD, some remnant of the energy and power of the ritual may remain, and may find new inflection in the field of experience of those who listen. Art has, after all, no container, but is constantly evolving, shapeshifting, finding new meaning, in the lives and hearts of those who participate in its magic workings.

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Music for the Vernal Equinox, Part I: From Darkness Into Light

Performed at Lexington Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Virginia, on November 13th, 2015.

Note: the loud "clunking" sounds at the beginning are old radiators turning on in the church.

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Andante lamentoso (2015) - Live Premiere

My first ambient work, composed December 2013. Rediscovered, revised, and released in April 2016.

(c) Jonathan Chapman Cook 2016
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Drifting in Space

"The satisfaction in relieving painful tension is the most common pleasure and the easiest to obtain psychologically; it can also be one of the most intense pleasures if the tension has lasted long enough and therefore has become sufficiently intense itself." Erich Fromm

A sparse drumbeat accompanies an introductory synthesizer cadenza, performed on a korg minilogue. An ms-20 bass line interjects and intensity grows as layers loop and the beat becomes more complex. The music reaches an explosive head several minutes in, before receding back into the sparse drum beat from which it began. This track loops on itself beautifully.

(c) 2016 Jonathan Chapman Cook
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Sufficiently Intense

Dedicated to Amira Hegazy <3
February 14th, 2017

(c) 2017 Jonathan Chapman Cook

Bird Dance

"A Cup of Bliss" by Jonathan Chapman Cook. Dedicated to the memory of Joseph Campbell, teacher and mentor in spirit across the boundaries of space and time.

All parts recorded using a Korg MS-20 and a Korg Minilogue, mixed and mastered in Ableton Live, with a bit of sound editing of samples for the final cut using Adobe Audition. Tracks composed and improvised on November 20th, 2016. Edited, revised, mastered, and renamed on February 15th, 2017. 

(c) 2017 Jonathan Chapman Cook

A Cup of Bliss

A Cup Of Bliss

Derp Listening with Zachary Boyt & Jonathan Cook.
Originally broadcast live on YouTube. November 3rd, 2018.
Stay Derp.

Jonathan Chapman Cook

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