Into the Blue – Joyaa (Mighty Mice Music) www.joyaa.com

In recent years, Joyaa (and partner, Gavin) has been very much providing the musical backbone to the remarkably successful Barbara Meiklejohn Free and her band, Daughters of Gaia, who many of you will have encountered at various MBS festivals.
Joyaa has written many beautiful songs over the years, most notably in my opinion on Aria Ma’s Soft Isle CD – a veritable New Age classic. She has a fine voice too, which has ranged from soft New Age diva to a brash ‘Aussie Alanis’ on previous albums. Many artists find it takes time to hone a defining ‘identity’, and hopefully with this album Joyaa is settling in herself as to her style and direction and can now feature in her own right on Spirit Radio, etc. rather than anonymously via Barbara's CDs.
Into the Blue is a little over-produced and musically ‘safe’ for my taste, but overall this is a very competent CD that should appeal to BMF fans and others everywhere.