Over the last few years, Beverly Glenn-Copeland has re-emerged as a pioneering musician, a figure ahead of his time. Starting with the reissue of his 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies in 2017, the trans Canadian-American artist has become a beloved cult figure for his spectral and comforting compositions, many of which have been re-released in the last couple years. There’s a new documentary about him that has been making the festival rounds. In May, his family raised over $90,000 through GoFundMe to help secure housing for Glenn-Copeland and his wife and ensure that he can continue to make music.
Glenn-Copeland, who was supposed to go on tour this year before the pandemic happened, has just announced the release of a forthcoming career-spanning compilation that also includes a handful of new songs. One of those is “River Dreams,” the first new piece of music that Glenn-Copeland has released since 2004’s Primal Prayer, which was reissued last year.
“I feel that music originates from the Universe itself, and it comes to me via something I call the UBS i.e. The Universal Broadcasting System. This song River Dreams came to me through the UBS,” he said in a statement, continuing:
The song has a feeling to it. It is both calming and interesting because of the unusual time signature which is seventeen eighth notes to every bar. Musically that is expressed as 17/8 instead of time signatures with which we are more familiar like 4/4 or 3/4. I recorded it in my home studio sometime in 2019.
Listen to it below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “La Vita”
02 “Ever New”
03 “Colour Of Anyhow” (CBC Q Live Version)
04 “Deep River” (Live From Le Guess Who?)
05 “Don’t Despair”
06 “Durocher”
07 “River Dreams”
08 “This Side Of Grace”
09 “Sunset Village”
10 “In the Image”
11 “A Little Talk”
12 “Montreal Main (A Buddha In The Palm)”
13 “Erzilli”
Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland is out 9/25 via Transgressive. Pre-order it here.
