Michael Crean - Songs to the Sea EP 
Release Date: 27th January 2023
This EP will not be everyone's cup of tea but whether you love it or not, it is going to be hard to ignore the creative talent and pure honesty behind the songs. Michael Crean has created 'Songs to the Sea' which opens up with a spoken word performance called 'The Water', a stream of consciousness ode to the sea in all its simplicity and ever presence like a voice note left on a phone long since dropped to the depths of an ocean that never calls you back. 'Drift' picks up the melodic tumult with a song that is part Jake Morley and part Samantics with atmospheric melodies pinging around creating a disorientating but intoxicating soundscape.
'Fragments' scatters and fidgets like an orchestra tuning up while an audience streams in, unaware that they're walking in on the main performance swirling around them. However, a sense of calm and order is momentarily restored on 'Just For Now' which features an idly played piano and somber strings sliding around in the middle distance. 'I Wake Up' is another spoken word track with more than a nod to Kae Tempest and Hollie McNish as well as a dreamlike, half-asleep quality. Crean leans easily in to a bit of electronica on 'Silence' which feels like Cosmo Sheldrake being played backward through a cheese grater but is also the coolest track in this collection. The EP ends on 'The Coast' which ripples up and down the piano with the urgent energy of water filled tributaries coursing towards the sea and sweet, salty freedom. This is an incredibly evocative, organic and elemental experience which takes you on a real journey through genres, moods and topography so I'd urge you to throw away your compass and follow your heart.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/michaelcreanmusic
Live Dates:
9th February - Colours, Hoxton