Mikel Rafael Unveils Debut EP ‘The Eternal Hour’
- Curious For Music Team
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
A debut of quiet magnitude from a bold new folk voice.
There’s something beautifully elemental about Mikel Rafael’s The Eternal Hour—a debut EP that feels less like a first statement and more like a long-lost manuscript unearthed from moss and myth. A triptych of folk songs mapped across a single, metaphorical day, Rafael’s songwriting doesn’t shout—it beckons. And those who follow will be rewarded.
Born Michelangelo Macrohon, Rafael has lived a life as wandering as his lyrics suggest. Raised between Houston and Hong Kong, now based in Nashville, his sound is untethered from any single geography, drawing equally from Celtic folk, American songwriting traditions, and literary textures. You can hear the ghosts of Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley in the melancholy hush of “Maples and Pines,” but there’s also something uniquely spectral here—a patience in the performance, a reverence in the arrangement.
The record's pacing is purposeful. “The Stream” is the luminous centrepiece, its fingerpicked melodies winding like a path through fog. “Rise Into The Gentle Night” concludes the journey with an aching grace, haunted but hopeful.
Much like its Blakean title suggests, The Eternal Hour is a meditation on the infinite in the everyday. Rafael’s music doesn’t aim for mass appeal—it aims deeper. This is folk not as genre, but as a vessel for spiritual inquiry. A cinematic trilogy of music videos, filmed in the Pacific Northwest, offers a companion narrative that enhances the mood without diluting the mystery.
For fans of Ye Vagabonds, Iron & Wine, or Lisa Hannigan, this EP will feel like a homecoming. For the uninitiated, Mikel Rafael is a name worth remembering—a songwriter not afraid to sit in silence, wait, and create something that lingers.
This release landed in our inbox thanks to Decent Music PR, who brought Giampaolo Pasquile's latest project to our attention. It’s always a pleasure to discover fresh talent through their recommendations.
