frozen Star

Illusions of Amethyst

Welcome to the Chromaverse. First stop: The Puppetmaker

Singularity

Otherworld

The opening track immediately establishes Singularity’s ethereal, surreal atmosphere. Haunting piano motifs and cascading synth waves create a sense of stepping through a portal into an unknown realm. The piece oscillates between minimalism and grandeur, as eerie harmonics and swelling orchestral textures build tension. Like an invitation to explore the remnants of an abandoned desert world, Otherworld is both inviting and unsettling, drawing the listener into the album’s sonic landscape.

A Child's Song

At first glance, A Child’s Song seems playful and nostalgic, built around a delicate waltzing piano. However, beneath the surface lurks an eerie, gothic atmosphere. Choral vocalizations drift in like whispers from another world, evoking a Halloween hauntfest. This duality—innocence tinged with unease—cements the track as a dark fairytale in musical form, a signature of Jacqueline’s storytelling approach.

Encounter From Beyond

Minimal yet emotionally charged, this track creates a cinematic meditation on the idea of the unknown and conjures nostalgia for the aliens and ufos of the popular imagination a century ago. The interplay of sparse instrumentation and subtle harmonic tension evokes a feeling of discovery, mystery, and reflection. The piece is a quiet yet profound moment of contemplation amid the album’s shifting tonal landscapes.

De tous biens plaine

A stunning reimagination of the French Renaissance chanson, this track faithfully follows the rules of medieval counterpoint and transports listeners across time. Layering her fluttering vocals on top of plucked strings, Jacqueline’s journey to early music somehow fits among her atmospheric soundscapes from different worlds.

Amber Sky

One of the album’s most tranquil and introspective moments, Amber Sky is a lush, beautifully flowing solo piano piece that radiates warmth. Its meditative quality flows from cascading arpeggios. The piece is intimate, peaceful, and reflective, allowing the listener a breath of serenity before the album plunges into deeper tension.

Reality 101 Failure

Written for a sci-fi short film, this track is a short yet powerful interlude, this track’s pulsing electronic elements create an eerie, futuristic soundscape, and sets the stage for what is to come.

Tunnel (Running Theme)

Dark, intense, and cinematic, Tunnel (Running Theme) captures the adrenaline of pursuit. The piece opens with a low rumbling before growing into an ominous, relentless force of pulsing rhythms and eerie piano motifs. It evokes the feeling of running through a forest, chased by something unseen.

The Pursuer

One of Singularity’s most dynamic compositions, The Pursuer plays out like a high-stakes film score. Opening with sparse, ghostly piano notes, the track gradually builds into a sweeping orchestral arrangement. The violin and flute represent characters who become anxiously intertwined. The result is a piece that is both ominous and mesmerizing, painting a vivid picture of suspense, confrontation, and inescapable fate.

The Pursuer (Postlude)

Stripped down and intimate, this track serves as the emotional aftermath of The Pursuer. A solo piano, limited to the octatonic scale, perpetuates the sense of anxiety. It is a sparse and poignant contrast to the grandeur of the previous track, reinforcing the cinematic arc of the album.

Aurora

The album’s closing track is its most celestial piece. Aurora is a mesmerizing, ambient sound bath, layering ethereal synth textures into a sweeping, meditative finale in which the listener’s imagination becomes an active participant, contributing transitory sound illusions. It evokes light breaking through darkness, and as the final notes dissipate into silence, the listener is left with a sense of transformation—of having traveled through Jacqueline Cordes’ singular musical universe and emerged changed.

Live Performances

La Campanella - Dueling Pianos Crash and Burn Challenge

January 2025

Illusions of Amethyst

December 2024

Encounter From Beyond

August 2024

Father and Daughter Excerpts

August 2024

Reflections of Solitude

April 2024

Music pre-singularity

On a recent album, I was so excited to team up with Isabelle Saad, a friend from high school for **this piece**! I gave her the vocal part to sing since she's the best singer I know - she did a fantastic job!

**This piece** I wrote was inspired by the first episode of the show DARK and my first piece for orchestra.

Here's my **third album**, released in 2021!

**This song** was inspired by the movie Pan's Labyrinth.

**Come Home**, inspired by the movie 1917.

I first recorded the piece **Visions**, inspired by the movie Donnie Darko, as a MIDI file, edited it in my laptop, and then played it back through the keyboard. It was so weird seeing the piece being recorded, without even hearing it!

Several people have commented that my piece **Turn** (inspired by the movie Parasite) sounds like Radiohead. There can't be a better compliment!

Creating original music has jumped to the top of my list of obsessions! I released my **first album on SoundCloud** in 2020.

Visions and piano music

This is my recording of Bach's WTC Prelude No. 6 along with the images I see for different sections of the piece. I usually see colors for music, but Bach's music tends to give me images (I never see a color and an image at the same time), and I need to be actually playing the piece in order to see them. Also, once I gain muscle memory for the piece, I won't see the images anymore (but the exact images come back if I forget and relearn the piece).

My Favourite pieces

My grandma was the organist at her church for decades and is mindbogglingly good at sight-reading. We always share our piano pieces with each other whenever I come to visit.

At one point, when I got obsessed with all the piano pieces from the game Dancing Line (this one is called The Autumn), I practiced as much as 8 hours per day. I can't get enough.

Audition Video for College App

This is probably my favorite piece. It's literally colorful to me, like Rachmaninoff, and is incredibly beautiful.