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In May 2026, Metier Records presents Edward Cowie's Darkness into Light, a stunning collection of works for harp and flute, performed with superb brilliance by Alice Giles and Laura Chislett, two of the world's leading soloists on these instruments. The album features two major works for solo flute and solo harp, a duo for both instruments specially written for Alice and Laura, and the title track, a fantastic three-way improvisation for flautist, harpist, and Edward Cowie himself on piano.Edward Cowie is one of the most notable voices in contemporary music and is considered by many to be the Inchleading contemporary composer of music that is related to the natural worldInch (Fanfare). A remarkable polymath, Cowie is renowned as a composer, visual artist, and natural scientist.La Primavera is a series of 'sound portraits' for solo flute, inspired by the nine figures in Botticelli's painting, one of the most beautiful, mysterious, and cryptic of all time. The painting radiates light and movement, and this is reflected in Cowie's music, which epitomises the limpid and hugely flexible sonorities and brilliance of the flute. The series of variants follow the figures in the painting from left to right, 'blown' into the music by Zephyrus, signifying the breath of the flautist. In the painting, most of the characters are either dancing or posed in dance-like actions, linking it to Harlequin Dances for solo harp, one of the 'satellite' works inspired by characters from Cowie's opera Commedia (1977). In Harlequin Dances, Cowie fuses music of the 16th century with some of the gestures and theatrical devices of the Commedia itself. The sorrowful emotions of unrequited love lead to Harlequin's rehearsal of dancing himself to death, but also to something hopeful and luminous. Cowie skilfully uses the resonances and wide range of timbre of the harp, and the closing few minutes are
