For those who've followed Jack Cooper from Mazes to Ultimate Painting, and then to Modern Nature, here's another path to take. On Jesus Green, the new release with Heather Roche, Jack Cooper has offered up new shades of music. Fans of the recent efforts from Modern Nature will find this one resonant for them, though the sparse pieces here are quite different than nearly anything Cooper's done to date, I think.
Jesus Green is broken down into three parts. Each is elegiac and as stark as one can imagine. Notes are struck on Jack's guitar, a faint echo is heard and it is left to linger in the air, and then maybe a faint response from Roche's clarinet is put forward. The three tracks shun an obvious sense of momentum, though there is that in each selection. The sense of time passing -- a flower opening in slo-mo on film -- that kind of thing, pervades all this. As such, Jesus Green is sublime. It's a soundtrack for contemplation and reflection, and the sort of thing that owes as much to records on the ECM or Windham Hill labels, as it does to Spirit of Eden-era Talk Talk. Still, let this utterly unique record stand on its own terms and transfix you with its elegant simplicity.
Jesus Green by Jack Cooper and Heather Roche is out now via Astral Spirits. Details below.
[Photo: Astral Spirits]