Phil Kieran - Life Cycling LP [Maeve]

"Nick Cave said music should be a vehicle", says Phil Kieran, "something you can immerse yourself in, to be taken on a journey; to let your own imagination make the connection between life experience and the sounds you hear."

Kieran has been one of Ireland's top producers for almost two decades, and when he spoke to Maeve about an album he'd been working on, he expressed some caution, perhaps, well, it wasn't the kind of thing Maeve would be into. If this was a brazen attempt at reverse psychology, it worked. Interest was piqued, conversation continued, and the outcome was a charming and hypnotic album, unlike anything heard from Phil, or anyone else, before. That album was 'Life Cycling' and it was quickly agreed that it would be the perfect record to be the first long player artist release on Maeve.

In a world where everything is speeding up, 'Life Cycling' slows things down, a pictorial mosaic of the artist's life, a vehicle into which he has poured his own experiences. With references as broad as Kraftwerk, Popol Vuh, even Bach, it is an anthem to the organic and human, drawn through the hum and spin of machines, and holds a greater personal echo for Kieran himself.

"It's not easy to find out who you are deep inside," he says, "let alone what that might sound like. Over the last few years, I've really been making music that is just me. I've collected all these experiences along the way and I find I've finally reached a point where I can describe a feeling I have inside; to search for that vibration that really resonates with me, to create it. 'Life Cycling' is a vehicle, a place you can immerse yourself in."