2002, The Wishing Well

Deep into 2002’s fourth decade of recording, the release of another sonically intricate, melodically and rhythmically transcendent and soul-transformative album like their latest, The Wishing Well, is another opportunity to tap into the behind-the-scenes magic behind the ongoing dynamic musical flow of the husband-and-wife team of Pamela and Randy Copus and their daughter Sarah – a trio Michael Diamond of Music and Media Focus once called “the first family of new age music.”

In my review of their equally stellar, spiritually inviting 2024 album Time Traveler, the focus was on the places they found inspiration and how after two decades they balanced keeping their established aesthetic with new innovations. To introduce The Wishing Well, a deeply personal, sweetly nostalgic, contemplative and reverie filled collection, two unique questions about inspiration and the creative process seem to be in order. The first is about visual artist Nelli Vallova compelling cover art of a golden koi fish surrounded swirling gold strings as if it’s being captured in mid swim/flight.

Pamela offers a simple answer: “What’s always fun is when the cover shows up or the album names itself. When I stumbled upon Nelli’s beautiful fish, it was love at first sight for me and Randy. That whimsical little fish must have come from someplace special – hence The Wishing Well was born. He certainly must be a magical fish with eons of stories inside. I love that point when the album names itself and otherwise takes its own directive.”

As we listeners venture through this magical, multi-faceted stylistic landscape of what 2002 calls “new songs inspired by tales from other lands as well as by a few personal stories,” Randy responds to Question #2 (about the process of creating the album) with some illuminating insights into the trio’s artful fusion of organic inspiration and technical expertise via a program they created. He says, “As with all our albums, we have many more ideas and sketches recorded, than will make it onto the finished product. We try to let the whole record manifest itself in a natural way, hopefully without a lot of over-thinking on our part. Sometimes we hear songs in a dream, other times it comes from an instrument we’re playing, like our “Realtime” system.

“Realtime is a composing setup we’ve created, whereby a single keyboard plays dozens of instruments at one time, all controlled by an elaborate array of switches and foot pedals. It allows us to improvise, compose, produce and mix a piece of music in a single pass, in real time. The idea is, inspiration to realization as quickly as possible. We can also use it to add complex textures to songs already in the works. We mix and master all our music here now, and recently we have begun mixing our albums in Dolby Atmos 7.1.4, in addition to standard stereo.”

Since 2002 started not only ten years before the actual year 2002 but at least a decade and a half before streaming, the CD packaging (including liner notes) remains a vital part of the overall experience with any album. The contrast between their liner copy on Time Traveler and The Wishing Well couldn’t be clearer. While the earlier album spoke extensively about their individual instrumentation (including Randy’s Theramin and Moog Claravox and Pamela’s large bass flute), has no mention of individual instruments either on the credits or notes. The notes booklet features either brief or elaborate descriptions of or inspiration behind the individual pieces.

Among my favorite of these are the words 2002 uses to describe the project’s orchestral grandeur powered opening track “Overture: The Restless Heart,” which begins with the grace of caressing strings before, then evolves into a series of whimsical percussive vocals and the beautiful infectious lilting interplay between Pamela’s flute, Randy’s guitar and Sarah’s violin. The blurb reads: “Quintessential 2002 – this track showcases sounds from our earliest days and chronicles our journey though the decade.” The piece is both a sly wink back and an exciting look forward: “Music was a vast universe and we were ready to explore it.” Thankfully for new age fans everywhere, they’re still exploring!!

Just as Pamela and Randy did at the beginning of their personal and professional journeys, 2002 dares us to dream, engaging and captivating senses with a swirl of soothing, inspirational free-flowing splendor. They spark our deepest longings and wildest imaginings throughout the collection, most notably on the lush, dreamy and gently wafting flute and guitar driven “Three Wishes,” a song inspired by the wish granting genies of Arabian folklore; the thoughtful celestial meditations of “Moon Lore,” a tender piano centered ballad inspired by the 13 scales of a turtle’s shell representing the lunar calendar; and “On the Wings of Angels,” an ethereal soundscape reaching to great aspirational heights via a foundation of lush, ever intensifying strings, angelic voicings and the subtle soul of hypnotic guitar and flute energy.

The overall nostalgic nature of the album is captured wonderfully via the softspoken innocence of the soothing harp melody on “Twilight,” a breathtaking expression of childhood memories on warm summer nights. There’s no major anecdote behind the classic 2002  drifting orchestral/piano duality of “A Safe Harbor,” but the quote by John A. Shedd is worth pondering metaphorically as we listen: “A ship is safe in harbor but that is not what ships are built for.”  

While the aforementioned gems are essential elements of The Wishing Well, the true heart and emotional core of the album are the handful of works chronicling key moments and flights of fancy from the early days of Pamela and Randy’s journey as a musical duo who would someday engage and amaze the world. The first of these is a delicate, mystical, musically and thematically spacious look up at the stars to “The Spiral of Heaven” they encountered on a 1991 trip from Dallas TX to Chaco, NM. As their notes explain – and please listen to the soft-spoken unfolding of their wonder as you read – they pitched their tent in the desert and reveled in the splendor of the starriest night we had ever seen. Traveling further Caso Rinconada and seeing the sunrise, they recorded Pamela’s flute for over an hour.

Marked by peppy synth patterns, fast paced, joyful rhythmic choir-like voices, fluid harp and guitar lines and charming flute musings, the plucky,  lighthearted “Dream Chasers” shines light on the duo’s early creative development by showcasing one of their early compositional styles, which featured their signature instruments as if they were “chasing each other through cascades of melodies, rhythms and textures.”

The album’s final two tracks are also inspired by sacred seminal moments in their lives, starting with the graceful intertwining harp and guitar grounded reflection “Bellehaven” – the magical street where they moved into their first home and immediately converted their garage into a recording studio, giving birth to their musical dreams, and ultimately by extension, ours as listeners. They explain that “miracle after miracle happened in that place,” and we can hear it in the music.

2002 wraps The Wishing Well in an immersive wave of blissful serenity that serves as an invitation to travel back in time to 1986, when the couple fell in love with the same book, Savriti: A Legend and a Symbol by Sri Aurobindo, a poetic masterpiece based on a love story in an ancient Indian epic. Listeners are invited to feel that profound connection they had reading passages from the book while 250 miles apart. They wrote this gorgeous compositions 30 years after releasing their second album Savriti. It’s a magnificent full circle moment among many on this incredible collection and the perfect coda to the journey.