Released on 7 March to celebrate International Woman’s Day the following day, Ensemble C’s new album Every Journey demonstrates that the UK has found a gem of a composer in Claire Cope.
Upscaling from the septet of her 2020 debut Ensemble C album Small World, this new collection of eight superbly written and played pieces, utilises an eleven-piece ensemble, comprising of some of the UK’s finest musicians.
Cope’s 2011 EP (issued as The Claire James Trio) and her poignant solo soundtrack to (husband) Rob Cope’s 2019 short film ‘Richard Turner: A Life in Music’, exhibit her indisputable piano skills, however it is with her compositions, performed here by Ensemble C, that the unquestionable artistry – which, incidentally, won her a Marvin Hamlisch Award in 2022 – is truly revealed.
She makes no secret of some of her key influences and there are hints here and there of such luminaries as Kenny Wheeler, Michael Brecker and the sublime Maria Schneider. Cope’s unique compositions however, have a distinct lightness of touch, permeated with a host of wonderful ‘tunes’ (so often absent in the work of many composers), which provide a foundation for the excellent playing by all concerned on Every Journey.
Cope has taken the stories of a number of intrepid women, as her ‘muse’ for the pieces on Every Journey and that inspiration oozes from her compositions. She uses all eleven musicians at times to give extra punch, such as on album opener Every Journey (Has A Beginning). Ant Law’s superbly built guitar solo on the piece, also perfectly illustrates the space her compositions provide for some fabulous soloing throughout the album (a notable Schneider attribute too).
Everyone, including Cope with her own excellent playing, gets their place in the sun, most markedly Brigitte Beraha’s outstanding, mainly wordless vocals. Reminiscent at times of the wonderful Norma Winstone / Neil Ardley collaborations, Beraha has never sounded better – check out her ‘choral’ multi-tracked voice, alongside Mike Soper’s beautiful Wheeler-esque flugelhorn, on The Light of the Dark. Beraha also composed fine lyrics for third track The Birch and the Larch, a definite highlight of the album.
In addition to Beraha, Law and Soper, Cope is also blessed with the services of Freddie Gavita, Anoushka Nanguy, Matt Carmichael, Rob Cope, Gavin Barras, Jon Ormston and Jack McCarthy on the album.
Despite being firmly based in the UK, the word is definitely getting out across the US: she has been signed up by the progressive Boston-based PR agency Braithwaite & Katz; the Hamlisch awards, based in Michigan, have helped put her on the map; and this release is on the artist-owned New York label Adhyâropa Records.
Every Journey is a brilliant example of a body of work that reaches and perhaps even surpasses the adventurous heights that its creator patently envisaged. Claire Cope is an undoubted talent to keep a close eye on.
Author John Ferguson (Instagram @johnferg01) co-promotes live music at SoundCellar in Poole, Dorset (www.soundcellar.org )
‘Every Journey’ by Ensemble C is released on Adhyâropa Records today, 7 March 2025
