This is one of the few times I can compare a song to the music you might hear in a swanky therapist’s office and mean it as a compliment. “Waiting Room” off Pianos in the Fields of Color transports you into a world of familiar serenity.
Calmer Feeling, the duo of prolific Des Moines multi-disciplinary artist Mark Rushton and Orlando, Florida pianist and composer John Eric Copeland (to my knowledge, unrelated to the Eric Copeland of noise band Black Dice) certainly evokes the atmosphere of spa-like mellowness. Clocking in at under 45 minutes, you need not be intimidated by the album’s 16 individual tracks, which seem to be divided between a side A and side B. Unlike many ambient albums, each track ends with a hard stop, though Pianos has a unifying factor of a choral-like drone accompanying Copeland’s piano throughout.
The first half of the project is largely sparse and celestial, with the piano tastefully drenched in reverb drifting around the landscape provided by Rushton’s electronics. Interestingly, the track that shares the name of the album begins with what sounds like the piano in a very high register, but it becomes clear that it’s actually Rushton’s synths. This allows the listener, for one of the few times in the album, to wonder where the piano begins and the electronics end. I found the track “Contemplative Moments” a change of pace with its brief organ-like sample at the beginning followed by low register piano.
“Side B” begins with “Blank Canvas,” introducing the first real elements of dissonance. The synths are menacing, crunchy and begin the track. If you were blissing out before, this track reminds you that you are not, nor have ever been, at the spa. The piano, less menacing, plunks around in half-steps and minor intervals. The track is short and following it, the listener arrives back in the airy world of earlier in the album, albeit one that sounds a bit more mysterious. A dissonant synth returns in “Water Vapor Cloud,” but the piano meanders tonally around in its full range, making the track less of a wake-up than “Blank Canvas.”
The last three tracks of the album are quite different from the previous 40 minutes, and could almost be treated as bonus tracks. The first, “We Can Move Mountains,” introduces a tambourine sample, creating a collaborative rhythmic world for the musicians to play in. “Happy Generator” inspires imagery of some sort of calculating machine with electronic bleep-bloops. Incidentally, with the use of minor intervals, the piano doesn’t come across as particularly “happy.” Finally, the record closes with “Organic Air.” Fun synthy keys and percussive samples drop the listener back into the real world.
If you’re looking for a listen to turn your brain off to, Calmer Feeling’s prescription Pianos in the Fields of Color is able to help. The co-pay is only $9, and it’s just as long as an appointment with your therapist.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s December 2025 issue.
