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CD Feature/ Mikronesia: "Iris or Comfortable Too"

  Tobias

Mikronesia sounds like rolling waves, a green-coloured ocean, palm trees, sun, blue, blue skies, comfortable warmth, and peaceful quietness.
Mikronesia, the word, has its roots in the Greek language and means “small island”.
Mikronesia, the artist, is a composer, sound artist, producer and DJ. His name is Michael McDermott.

“Iris Or Comfortable Too” is his latest release on the label Gears of Sand. Before talking about the music, I can not withstand to recommend some listening suggestions: Try to avoid all possible interruptions or disturbances. Make sure you are comfortably seated - better, lie down and rest. Close your eyes, while the music starts and let your imagination take over. What you are about to hear is better than any relaxation exercise you may have experienced or heard of before.

Mikronesia takes you into a world where fantasy, and I mean your personal fantasy, rules. The sounds are, true to the project’s name, of a minimalistic nature, yet never leave you all on your own at any point of the performance. You will feel yourself being transported from one tiny, comfortable sound island to another, each of them representing a small, but nonetheless impressive and unique paradise.
 
To generate these smoothing sounds, Michael uses the grand piano of his friends Brian and Lulu, and electronics on his laptop. All this melts together into one piece, although the CD itself has been structured into seven tracks. As for me, these tracks may be different in certain ways, but they are islands in an exotic, peaceful musical archipelago, that in itself forms a small, yet strong nation, a territory in its own right.

Some bashful piano structures appear seemingly out of the blue like a seagull’s effortless flight over some blue and quiet waters, sometimes standing almost motionlessly in the steady yet comfortable wind, hardly moving a wing to maintain its position. These sounds are very tender, almost affectionate, inviting dreams and reflections for those listeners, who really try to listen.

There is no place and, more importantly, no reason to discuss technical musical achievements in this case. Mikronesia can do without them. With minimal words, or better musical expenditure, he encourages us to travel into a stellar universe of our own feelings, fantasies and imagination. This musical vehicle can go every which way we want it to go, and that is the utmost strength and power of Mikronesia’s “Iris Or Comfortable Too”.

What is so remarkable about this CD is that Mikronesia should be called a poet although he uses no words and relies exclusively on instrumental means. His outstanding compositions bear the power to draw peoples’ attention to their inner selves, generate fantasies and trips into their souls in the process, thus working in an almost therapeutic way. A truly outstanding piece of art.
 
By Fred M. Wheeler

Homepage: Mikronesia
Homepage: Gears of Sand Records