Mira Drevo - Heavens of Lakes

Water is such a fascinating wonder of the world if I do say so myself. We are able to find happiness, sadness, chaos and birth all within this world wide phenomenon. Take the hot summer days, and people would love to just jump in a cold pool of water to cool themselves off. And they find themselves happy. Take the frosty days of winter, and not one would want to be drenched in the liquid in the cold air. For then they would find themselves miserable.

We find ourselves blessing and cursing the fluid; without it, life would cease to sustain itself forever more. With it, though, it erodes landscapes and continues to flood cities and destroy buildings, killing relatives and deconstructing our most precious objects. And so, with all this in mind, what's a more perfect way to create a calming and relaxing and otherwise sacred album then by utilizing Earth's precious gift and poison to us all?

Skald, the man behind Mira Drevo's debut album, Heavens of Lakes, just goes to prove what can come of the simple fascination of water. More so, a lake. His inspiration for this album came from a journey to Lake Ladoga, and I am so glad that the philosopher decided to take a trip there, only to come back and tell his tale in the form of musical poetry.

I absolutely adored the first piece, Spaces. It's an ambient song, and it really captures everything that should be found within a lake. The calm, flowing water, the birds chirping from a distance really sets the mood. The soothing synth helps break another barrier and just makes you feel as if you're on a canoe on this lake, in the middle of an expansive and never ending body of water. I have to say that I do feel my soul lifting while listening to this; it's a phenomenal experience.

Now, this is also where I see kind of a set back in the album. While I did find the middle of the tracks to be awesomely composed, I just did not find them as enchanting as the first song. They take a more tribal sound to them, and it kind of breaks the mood for me. They are good, as I said, and varied; just check out Sandbank of Stars, and you'll feel like you're laying on your back on a beach, looking up at the stars. The sweet chimes and light drums make that image work in there for you.

The last song on the album, Storm, is a pretty unique way to send us off. Combined with the beautiful sounds that spread throughout the album and vary from time to time comes these deep rumblings, somewhat faded, that makes it sound as if thunder is rolling in. And I also interpreted the song as an end, as well; the artist has come to the lake, enjoyed his time, and now that the thunder is coming, the storm is starting to brew, and so he must set off to avoid the nastiness of mother nature.

I love this album. It doesn't help that at the beginning of this album, I was feeling a bit tired. And, now that I've listened to it time and time again, I find myself getting more and more relaxed to the point where I want to sleep. It is wonderful when an album can do such things to me. However, there are still things to be done in my day before I can rest easy (I'll save you the details as to not bore or disgust you), but this is definitely an album that's worth checking out for comfort and relaxation. Jul 28 2013