Mike Nielsen Quartet

Mike Nielsen Quartet: Acoustic Sound Recipes

by C. Michael Bailey
March 28, 2011

In 2005, American expat singer Ellen Demos released Osmosis (Self Produced), featuring Ireland's Mike Nielsen. The Irish guitarist now leads the aptly titled travelogue, Acoustic Sound Recipes, an aural journey through many different styles of music, often divided on ethnic borders. The instrumentation is spare, amounting to only Nielsen's guitar, Demos' voice, Brendan Doyle's clarinets and percussionist Shane O'Donavan's thumping. Without much baggage to carry, this group is well fit to interpret whatever music they wish. The ...