I was attracted at first to this track for the oddest of reasons, namely that Miriel (Maria Spikkeland) appeared in one of those ‘Sponsored’ Facebook posts, I’m sure you’ve seen them if you follow contemporary music even moderately closely, and just as I was reading the PR for her. I’ve never paid much attention to those ads before but perhaps I should have because this is a great track.
‘Míriel’ is of Tolkien origin and means ‘jewel daughter’ but as to whether that has anything to do with her artist name I haven’t a clue. But I hope it does.
She’s a classical pianist who cites Debussy as an influence but at various other parts of the scale, Bon Iver, Kate Bush, Aurora and Agnes Obel. And yes, you can hear some of Obel’s dark and mysterious style in Miriel’s work, while fortunately not too much of Aurora and Kate, who turn up in perhaps too many songs that aren’t theirs.
‘Still in my Mind’ hangs on a repeating piano line which you can hear even as a full-blown orchestral assault is mounted; an excellent piece of production. And her voice complements the music extremely well, all shimmery and atmospheric.
And I love the way it plays out to a slow heartbeat, and protractedly. It looks like many of her songs are devoted to affairs of the heart and that’s a nice touch.
The song is from her debut album ‘A Love Story’ (what else?) which is released today on Friday May 14th 2021.
I have a feeling she’ll be a regular in these pages.
Find her on Facebook.