SEVENTH WAVE

London, 2018 

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American guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Michelle Qureshi has produced a vast amount of music during the past few years, including releases such as Flow and Scattering Stars in 2016. The award-winning artist’s eight album Seventh Wave—released on Heart Dance Records—is an hour long journey in the world of new age music and meditative contemplations.

The notion of ambient music—first explored by British artist Brian Eno in 1978 with Ambient 1: Music for Airports—has gained more and more interest from musicians across the world, and it is with an interesting approach that Qureshi develops the concept of musical atmospheres and textures.

Although the choice of instruments in Seventh Wave seems very occidental at first there are definitely some East Asian influences, whether in the meditative approach of Qureshi—We Were Once Like This—or more obviously in pieces such as Never Odd or Even or There Lightly.

An all strings album, the guitar seems to be Qureshi’s instrument of choice, whether it is acoustic in Each Good Rain—recalling some of the works of jazz guitarist Pat Metheny—or electric and experimental—reflecting the influence of the Pink Floyd and the Psychedelic era of the 1960-70s—in Velvet Rains or Of the Night . 

Musical sheets of strings form the uniting basis of each piece, fading in and out as the music goes by, as in Shift and Reason.

Much like its artwork, Seventh Wave is a collection of sound patches and miniature musical journeys. Following the motto of “music as a metaphor”, Qureshi aims in creating music that seems to revolve around the potential in uniting, connecting and touching people.