London, 2026

 

Pianist and composer Erin Margaret aka Lumirel releases her first solo project — Drifting. A work focused on the piano, it is for her an offering to the listener for healing, reflection and return. Born in the spaces between, Lumirel — loosely translating to light revealed, or the light we return to; a somewhat biographical reflection of the musician’s own journey — who is also an aspiring author, crafts pieces that are strong in storytelling and narrative.

 

For the composer, Drifting grew almost accidentally, as the pieces started to connect with each other. Allowing instinct, patience and restraint to dictate the process led Lumirel to the realisation that the pieces were, in fact, one body of work.

All the pieces of Drifting are named after movements in relation to water and, for many of them, movements out of the control of the object and subject to the forces of nature. These strong conceptual ideas are then translated into music with creative and descriptive musical devices. For instance, “Cascading” is a miniature waltz which illustrates the idea of cascading through inventive rhythms and note arrangements. “Drifting”, the title piece of the project, creates the sensation of movement through the exchange of melodic voices across the register of the instrument.

There is an elegant measure of brighter pieces such as “Diving” — which appears almost song-like — and more serious ones, such as “Flooding”, a concept reflected both in the theme approached and in the musical content.

“Swirling”, which opens the project, illustrates Lumirel’s musical language and heritage of two traditions; modern, influenced by both the classical and early Romantic periods as well as the minimalists.

Finally, pieces such as “Sinking” and “Floating” are interesting in how they reflect Lumirel’s intention of allowing the listener to create a unique interpretation and experience, and eventually a musical journey.

 

In her works, Lumirel is less interested in virtuosity and more interested in listening — to space, to silence, and in her own words, to what a piece wants to become rather than what she might try to force onto it. If she sees her work almost as a form of sound healing — a vessel that carries the listener — it is when her music holds space for memories and experiences that she truly finds fulfilment in her work. Drifting is Lumirel’s first solo project, and is a successful work both through well-crafted and executed pieces, as well as through strong and interesting musical concepts and narratives revolving around a central theme. It is a release which introduces an artist with a keen ear for melody and who places storytelling at the forefront of her work.