ALL IS QUIET AT THE ANCIENT THEATRE

Description

‘All Is Quiet…’ begins in cold droned echoes of Nico’s ‘Frozen Warnings’ but Cotton laments vanishing English customs, performance & countryside. Viola, harmonium & recorders bring lost sounds – the deathly percussive march of ‘A Tragedy In The Tithe Barn’, ballad themes of departure in ‘The Bells of St. Agnes’. Cotton’s music searches a past of stillness & desolation but where Nico’s is an icy tundra, Cotton’s viola and choral layers hold earthy, distinctly English experimental resonances with early music modalities. It’s mournful, yes, but with contemplative spaces of light & renewal.