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The album “Maisema” (the Finnish word for landscape) is a project conveying Michael Neil’s experience of living in Finland for almost a year, which affected him enormously. The 55-minute album is filled with eight tracks of minimal but contemporary ambient music with an abstract edge. “Slow gestating music in an ambient style” as Michael likes to describe the outcome, as he found the ambience of Helsinki very stimulating. Flairs of shortwave radio signals of broadcasts are occasionally integrated in the quiet music, which for Michael represent a contact with the unseen but known world. “Hiljaa!” is a pleasant piece with its gentle piano and ethereal ambient textures, while dense, slow cascading soundscapes make up the 9-minute atmospheric “Phojois”. “Tundar” is another nice imaginary outing with its circular, smoothly building and elevating textural spheres. The flowing pads and repetitive patterns of “Ihana” put a nice ending to “Maisema”. All in all, I classify the album as an introspective piece of sonic art with hypnotizing and minimal elements, which becomes even more special when listening with headphones. |
| Website: www.michaelneil.eu
You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Michael Neil artist page
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