Neil Cowley Trio - Built on Bach (2026)

One summers afternoon in 2023 whilst dawdling about Leipzig in Germany, I found myself in St Thomas's Church, where Bach spent a large part of his working life. Despite this, I wasn’t prepared to casually look down at my feet and almost step on the great mans gravestone, lying flush to the ground next to the altar.

Scores of memories flashed before my mind. all underscored by the great man and my involvement with his music. Hours and hours of piano lessons and practice spent gleaning what I could from the set of pianistic rules that he set out so clearly and mathematically and in such beautiful harmony. The music that has inspired so much in music of all kinds and left people questioning at certain times in history whether his music isn’t in fact just the word of God.

Perhaps it was in that moment that I vowed to pay this influence some homage. And so that is now manifest in the collection of new compositions you hear on this record, all based loosely on the works of JS Bach, but styled and moulded to sound like the Neil Cowley Trio. A way perhaps of showing the Bach DNA that lies under the Neil Cowley Trio bonnet. Put simply, you hear what happens if the Neil Cowley Trio and Bach got together to chew the fat and have a jam!

Though these are new compositions, each one is borne out of a direct connection with a Bach piece. Taking passages, melodies or harmonies and then creating new music from these kernels of inspiration. I’m not going to to list here which Invention, Sinfonia or Prelude inspired each piece. Merely because I will get a kind of selfish joy in imagining you working that out for yourselves; and in turn perhaps listening to the great mans music in more detail and appreciating for yourselves the influence he has had on YOUR life and your love of music.

In the meantime… we hope you enjoy the fruits of this collaboration across the centuries.