Luke Cowan

𝙇𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙤𝙣-𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙇𝙪𝙠𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙬𝙖𝙣 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙖 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙘 𝙜𝙚𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙎𝙞𝙭 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨, 𝙖 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙮, 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣.

Recorded between Ely, Cambridge, York, and London, the album unfolds through six long-form pieces that treat sound as both location and emotion. Cowan juxtaposes piano, dulcimer, and harmonium with domestic and natural objects—pinecones, tankards, spoons, wine glasses—each transformed into resonant instruments of chance and memory. Surrounding him, an ensemble of trumpet, cello, pedal steel, violin, and tuba emerges and recedes like passing weather systems, blurring the line between composition and improvisation.

Field recordings bleed through the mix: brass echoes in the Greenwich foot tunnel, wind stirs in an Ely garden, the hum of a York Lidl lingers like a ghost. The result is music that feels lived-in yet elusive, a series of “idealised geographies” that drift between the physical and the imagined.

Six Places resists polish or precision, instead celebrating imperfection as part of its landscape. It’s pastoral but not nostalgic, textured but not ornamental—a study in fragility, resonance, and quiet transformation.

Mastered by Mikey Young and paired with Finlay Abbott Ellwood’s artwork, Six Places captures the essence of sound as place: transient, intimate, and infinitely open.