Michael Peter Olsen/Castle If
Michael Peter Olsen
Yearning Flow // Hand Drawn Dracula
It’s the start of another year that will be largely spent without live music, but the lack of tour support doesn’t appear to be stopping the steady flow of new recordings. In a grand display of ambition, the first 2021 release for me to write on is by an artist whose career accomplishments put even most career musicians to shame. Michael Peter Olsen may not be a name you’re familiar with, but it’s very likely that you’ve heard him before as he appears on tracks by Drake, Arcade Fire and Haim among many others. Besides working as a session musician and classically trained cellist, Olsen is also a producer, audio engineer, composer for film and Grammy-nominated songwriter. With such a body of work behind him, it’s hard to decide whether to wonder how it took him so long to bring his own personal project to the studio or wonder how he found any time to do so at all. In either case, he now brings us his ethereal new album Yearning Flow.
As if to separate himself fully from his experience in pop, rock and hip hop, Olsen has chosen to lean toward his composition background with the album falling squarely into the ambient genre. Being naturally more demanding a genre for the listener’s attentiveness, I found myself with more listening notes than in any previous review now that the lack of lyricism and rhythm put so much more emphasis on the ever-changing textures. As a result, the sheer length of tracks like opening track “Goals” and “7 Days” became less daunting as I followed the various cello and electronic parts as they appeared and disappeared periodically, or came in and out of becoming submerged in reverb and delay effects. What makes the music particularly compelling is the fact that it’s virtually impossible to discern whether some parts are electronic or organic - even parts that are obviously synths will have almost organic characteristics. The most notable exception to the rule are the retro synths appearing on “MoonMist”, appearing as though to give the listener something clear and familiar to cling to (I wrote: “what 70s Pink Floyd would sound like if you drowned it,” in my notes). This brief offering of familiarity also appears in the more tonal closing track “Cloud Parade”, which earns its name with the heavenly soundscape it creates out of cello, wordless vocals and the effects applied to both.
The dynamic and organic character of Yearning Flow gives it the air of a breathing, pulsating living thing, or else a natural landscape observed over centuries of erosion and change. Olsen’s film background shines through to the point where I would not have been surprised to learn that it began life as the soundtrack of an equally atmospheric psychological thriller. This is an album made by someone who understands the art of music on a deep level, and it demands the same appreciation from the listener.
- Ty Vanden Dool
Castle If
Beyond! // Independent
The space obsession began in the 50’s and carried forward. People were becoming fixated on the future. What would it look like and sound like? People imagined robots to make day to day life a little easier. Flying cars and everything was automatic fantastic. So what began as a thought then became reality and I’m sure flying cars are already in the works.
I was born on the tail end of the seventies. That decade brought many excellent sounds. From one end of the spectrum you have Black Sabbath’s wild guitars and on the other end you have the sweet disco beats of the Bee Gee’s. With this came more of the sizzling sounds of the synthesizer. You could hear synthesizer across many genres. We’re on the brink of something here. What’s old is new and what’s new is old. That’s how it seems with the new album by Castle If titled Beyond!. Dreamy space music with a retro feel. Let’s face it we need a little healthy escape and let it be Beyond!... beyond your wildest dreams.
Jess Forrest is Castle If and comes to us from Toronto, Ontario. Her project is a fusion of time and space, past and present, electronica euphoria. It encapsulates the best sounds of then and now making something that has the 70’s discotheque charms and the feel of Sci Fi/Fantasy. It’s no wonder I picked this album. It was that and for the bright eye catching cover art.
Get your moon boots on because it’s time to get down to the sounds of “Moon Boogie.” It totally tamed the disco fever I’d been suffering… a fever only soothed by cowbell or disco. Sometimes I just have a hankering for disco that stems back to listening to my Mom’s records when I was like five, and this track felt like a new fresh version of “Night Flight to Venus” by Boney M.
“Cosmic Lover” has a breezy lounge feel and easy listening vibe to put you in the mood for more sweet synth and maybe a martini. It has some of the 50’s tempo sounds featured on old organs. It’s a Rumba or Bossa Nova. I learned to play organ when I was a kid. Those tempo buttons allowed you a rhythm to play along to. This song took me way to my childhood home with its homage to retro.
“Beyond” is beyond amazing!! Full of synthfull flavour and tantilizing trills. I’ve envisioned this song will be part of sound track to Cats In Space, either in part or whole album. It’s as purrfect as Castle If’s promotional picture. A picture of Jess and her beloved feline friend.
Go on... take that trip! Go Beyond! the borders of time and space and take in the new album by Castle If. You’ll definitely be glad you did! You may never want to leave. You can return to Beyond! as often as you wish. See you there.
Live Long and Prosper!
Sincerely,
Green Noreen
