The Michael Kwok sound is nothing short of blissfully calming, soaked in great vibes with just enough of a retro touch of nostalgia to really get your mind wandering to wonderful places as you listen. “House of Marble” is a brilliant and aptly titled example of exactly this. The music is unbelievably smooth, the instrumental performances are fantastic but the way they’ve been mixed has such a delicacy to it that the skill just floats out and around you as if it’s inherently a part of the natural world.
The word retro comes to mind as there’s a certain crackle to the sound, the recording feels like a long lost from way back when. The riffs and melodies lead you away in a hypnotic and even seductive sort of way, provoking that necessary calmness, letting you sink further into relaxation and all the while reminding you, should you stop to really listen, of the sheer professionalism and talent that radiates from these performances. The instrumental choices add to both the smoothness and the realness, there’s a raw performance style to it all, but most definitely it is the melodies, the notes were chosen, the meandering nature of their presentation, that really provides the journey upon which the track takes you.As always, Michael Kwok brings his effortless musicality and enhances the soundscape in a beautifully natural manner. His innate awareness of the particular emotions or vibes featured on the track means that everything is tightly connected, every moment is focused upon and embraced. The music is always about the sound as a whole, as a united entity, and never about the singular musician and their abilities to shred or show off.
