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- March 17, 2022
Michael Crean’s “Fragments” is a multi-layered, emotional soundscape
A soft choir of strings, voices stuck whispering from memories, and a lone guitar, gently tuned and softly picked, flows together effortlessly into the mystifying path that is “Fragments.” Instantly the track embodies a feeling of yearning, reflecting, suspended in air, all cultivated by a riveting combination of rhythms across musical lines and lush melodies atop an atmospheric soundscape of acoustic harmony. As the sounds of the guitar and vocals intertwine, drums are added and the emotions of the words become more passionate and intense. Crean sings of “fragments of a dream I think I had,” as a mournful bow sweeps across the hollow body of a string instrument.
The modal harmonies throughout the piece give a feeling of things flowing together endlessly in a great pool, making for something both intimate and powerful. This is the second single from Michael Crean’s debut EP Songs to the Sea, one he’s been crafting over the last five years. The alt-acoustic artist wrote this song after a close friend fell into a psychosis. The event promoted Crean to ask himself what is left when memory and reality slip away. He wrote and recorded “Fragments” in a bedroom in East London in May of 2020, during England’s first lockdown. He cheekily said of the song, “I would have to try and time drum recordings with my neighbour’s shopping trips.”
The video itself for the song was also made by Crean using slow-motion footage and hand-drawn animation on an old whiteboard, then capturing underwater footage with a paddling pool in his garden. The sentimental video collage accompanies the tender nature of “Fragments.” Crean, acting as a songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, has been creating music entirely from his shed in Southwest London since 2017. He cites Kae Tempest, Damien Rice, and Radiohead as influences, and equates this current track as reminiscent of Radiohead’s Moonshaped Pool or Ben Howard’s Noonday Dream.
Aside from his own music, Crean’s also dipped his hand in film scoring and even started his own award-winning theatre company, Sense Assembly. The next new single off of his upcoming EP, a combination of spoken-word, surreal stories, and electro-acoustic textures, drops this Friday. He performed and arranged all of the instruments himself, from strings, keys drums, and production. Follow Michael on Instagram and watch the music video for “Fragments” below.
