Mikael Lind - Give Shape to Space (2020)

Mikael Lind is a composer and musician originally from Sweden, currently based in Reykjavik, Iceland. He has released music through labels such as Morr Music, Archives and Polar Seas Recordings and has also collaborated with Tangerine Dream’s Hoshiko Yamane in an album for Time Released Sound. Mikael had played a concert with Hoshiko late last year and had planned a European tour for 2020 which has been cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic. He also contributed some of the groundwork and mixing expertise in S.hel’s ‘Disconnect’ which we released back in March this year.

Growing up, Mikael was influenced by Aphex Twin and much of the Warp catalog as well as showing a keen interest in classical music, with Arvo Pärt a particular inspiration. Piano and synthesisers form the forefront of his sound as he combines orchestral timbres with subtle electronics. Recently he has been moving increasingly away from the typical Ambient sound in two directions; one is towards more classical music, and the other towards more electronic, modular music. 'Give Shape to Space' is somehow representative of this friction, without taking sides; modern classical minimalism with strings and pianos share the field with evolving modular synths, both contributing to ripping apart the comfortable ambient soundscapes and making them more expressive.

Mikael had various shapes in his mind as he developed the structure and detail that this record has become. He was reading about physics and in particular, quantum leaps. Beyond this, Mikael doesn't want to dissect his album too much, in the hope that you, the listener will bring your own shapes and imagination to this sound space.