East Wind is one of two solo piano CDs released simultaneously by Timothy Cooper (the other is “Light on the Water”). East Wind is a fascinating collection of thirty short (from 43 seconds to 3 1/2 minutes) piano pieces that were composed as a tribute to the victims of 9/11 and recorded on a concert grand piano. Open and a bit on the dark (but not brooding) side, this is music caught in the moment of creation by an artist who has been involved in music his whole life. Cooper’s musical career began as a soprano in various boys choirs that recorded albums and toured the US and abroad. As a teenager, he studied sitar until he took up piano as a student at The American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Over the years, Cooper developed his own style of improvisational composition, and finally began recording his music later in 2001. Most of the pieces on East Wind are quiet and intimate, with the feeling of vast, deep space. There is nothing harsh or flamboyant about the music, and it works well with full attention or as a backdrop for other activities. From Cooper’s website: "I love the piano's ability to create oceanic sound—a great wash of sustained sound that can seem at once infinite and intimate, with no borders or boundaries--only the presence of being... Sometimes my music has no definable beginnings, no absolute endings: only waves upon waves of sound headed as if for all shores, as in the music of dreams.” Many improvised albums do not hold together well with repeated plays, but this one does, revealing more about the music as well as the composer each time. Most of these musical vignettes have nature themes and their brevity is impressionistic like watercolor paintings or gesture drawings. Many have no distinct beginnings or endings, yet the CD is solid and consistent as a whole entity. Each little piece is distinct and unique, yet each is a part of the mood, expression, and experience of the whole. I highly recommend East Wind especially to those who enjoy music that is a bit more experimental and slightly edgy. It is available from [www.new-piano-age.com], amazon.com, iTunes, and cdbaby.com.