70 miles left of the mainstream and perhaps 10,000 geographical miles away from any major trance music hub sits Miika Kuisma. His biography says he lives “in South East Asia” (no greater elaboration given) and describes him as a “Finnish musician, artist, philosopher, futurist and inventor” with a passion for “exploring spirituality, science, history and technology”. Fair enough.

We first came across Miika via his nicely bubbling Subtraxx label some 3 years ago. The same Subtraxx label he sold back in 2009, jacking in any semblance of a nine to five, before heading out Asia way to produce. If you’re going to do spiritualism, that really must constitute doing it properly! Alongside that info-nugget we were mildly stunned to find out that he’s just completed the third in a of three album trilogy arc. So we thought it was high time we got our heads in that game and took a look & listen.

‘Progress of Soul’ is a fascinating, engrossing wander through the outer reaches of progressive house, ambient, chillout and deep (and we do mean deeeeeep!) trance. Unencumbered by the confines of 80 minute CDs, it’s a 1hr33min kaleidoscopic, transcendental (yes, that adjective was always going to be here somewhere) trip.

Fellow Fins Tab, Luke Chen and others are to be found collaborating across the 14 tracks and the deep, pulsating bass that populates large swathes of the album owes much to early Moby, Cosmic Baby & Jean-Michel Jarre material. The album’s mixed edition is out now, with the full length versions following on the 7th of December. Early in the New Year, ‘Progress of Soul’ will be joined by the first two LPs (which includes ‘Trying My New Wings’ – Beatport’s second best selling chillout track of 2008) to form one gargantuan triple release. In the meantime, check ‘Progress of Soul’ out. It’ll change your life, swear to god!

Source: TRANCE INTERNATIONAL