UHRecordings News and Press Releases
Edward Cowie: Rutherford's Lights - released!
08/03/11
The first release in 2011 from UHRecordings is a dramatic and virtuosic new set of
physics-inspired compositions by Edward Cowie Rutherford’s
Lights. Commissioned by the Institute of Physics, and performed by British
pianist Richard Casey.
From Venue Magazine:A lifelong fascination with the theory of light and colour, from Newton
to Ernest Rutherford, has inspired this new work by renowned composer, painter
and natural scientist, Edward Cowie. This epic piece for solo piano pulsates
and shimmers as the musical sounds reflect, dissolve, wave and bend, but, above
all, connect theories of light with manifestations in the natural world: limpid
reflections in water; the shatter of light and colour in falls and
water-courses; the iridescence of butterfly wing-scales; rainbow-effects; the
dazzle of sea-spray and the complex bending and angular deflection of beams of
light.
The development of the ideas for 'Rutherford's Lights' was aided by a close
working collaboration with physicist Sir Michael Berry and expressed through a
fascinating series of 'drawings on music' by Edward Cowie which test and
experiment with the properties of light. This huge sonic journey ('music to
imagine to' as Edward Cowie likes to describe it) is performed by award winning
pianist Richard Casey, a founder member of contemporary music group Psappha and
an artist recently invited by Pierre Boulez to perform with him in Carnegie
Hall, New York.
CLICK HERE to view the album page and shop
See Edward talking about the creation of Rutherford’s Lights here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRTXTRLe5rU