Swedish born, Iceland based composer and musician Mikael Lind have been creating and releasing material for a bit more than a decade, with almost a dozen EPs and albums to his name from what I can see. His genre of choice is experimental ambient music, often with classical influences. The EP “Fragmented Pianos” dates back to 2013, and was released by Macedonian label Post Global Recordings.
Ambient music is a genre I’m rather unfamiliar with. What traditions and subgenres that exist in this field are details I’m generally unaware of. That being said, this specific EP resides somewhere in the modern classical corner as far as I’m concerned.
As is often the case with the good quality ambient music I have come across so far, this is music with depth, with unexpected developments and with a darker touch to it that automatically transports it outside of the more cliched new age territories.
In this case we have slow moving, layered piano notes that opens the sole composition here, played with a cold and a chill that befits someone living in Iceland. Faint, shimmering echoes and surges starts to appear, inviting expectations to be taken into a journey into a dream-laden frozen landscape. But what this creation ultimately revolves around grows in after a few minutes, when a dark, grainy noise texture makes it first appearance. Following that event this composition explores fluctuations and variations in this noise drone set against the slow, gentle piano notes and the light toned echoes and surges that reflects of them. At times shimmering towards a silent pause, on other occasions drowning just about everything in dark, static noise.
What associations one can get from such a creation will be very much up to the individual listener, for my sake I started thinking about the cycles between day and night here in the Northern hemispheres, where darkness dominates light for half the year or thereabouts, and this creation may well reflect some seasonal changes in that aspect. But if this is the thought behind this creation or if it is something else entirely is hard to guess and know. The compositions, all 20 minutes of it, revolves around the contrasts between light and dark, between melody and noise, and between notes and textures.
Those fond of music with a foundation in classical piano music that have been treated with various kinds of effects to create textured drones and noises to accompany and contrast more simplistic yet compelling, delicate layered piano notes should find this EP to be an appealing one. Especially if you tend to enjoy creations of this kind revolving around fluctuating levels of lightness and darkness.
My rating: 60/100
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Track list:
Fragmented Pianos
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