There’s music that connects and engages with me on a purely emotional level, and then there’s music like that of multi-instrumentalist composer Mika Posen — recording and performing as Merganzer — that has a physiological effect on my body. Merzanger’s “Montage” slammed into me (in a good way) the first time I heard it. Posen, playing all instruments and creating all the song’s effects herself, creates a dense, yet buoyant cushion of sound that stopped me dead in my tracks. It felt as if I had been free-falling at high-speed from a great height into an invisible force field that instantly slowed everything around me down to a crawl. Posen plays with purpose and with intent; not a note is out of place or lacking some greater purpose. She makes each pause feel as if it’s dying to tell you a secret it just can’t keep any longer. The song is only five minutes long, but Merganzer invests it with the richness of a full symphony. It’s been days since first hearing “Montage” and I still feel as if my body is recovering — no, adjusting — from the impact.
