Albert Camus’ 1947 novel, La Peste (The Plague), is a powerful evocation of a city at the mercy of a pandemic, where suffering and fear are tempered by acts of courage and selflessness. Australian composer Luke Howard takes Camus’ tale as his inspiration to explore life after months of lockdown in Melbourne. Combining digital effects, strings and dampened piano, Howard creates warm cocoons of sound, many of his track titles direct quotes from the novel. “A Different Idea of Love” winds tentatively upwards, reaching for the light, while the bleakness of “The Vast Indifference of the Sky” brings our solitary existences into sharp relief. The synth textures of “The Opening of the Gates” symbolise the nervousness of our lives starting up once more, and the final, solo piano “A Faint Qualm for the Future” brings doubt and a sense of caution as we fathom our new world.