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"She's got what it takes to be a star!" Gerald Lehner, ORF (Austrian Public Broadcasting Service) "Truly great. In songwriting and arrangement it [the album] is really on par with international singer-songwriters." Angela Gobelin, NDR Info (Northgerman Public Radio) "Meike Koester could be famous - the German Sheryl Crow - because her American singer-songwriter pop is absolutely professional and suitable for commercial radio without ever sliding into "insignificant-la-la-pop." meike koester knows how to sing, play guitar and write songs. [...] But meike koester is not backed up by the music industry. She founded her own label and is marketing herself. The advantage is, that she's artistically free to do what she wants. The disadvantage: Now she's so free, that hardly anyone knows her. That's a shame, but it will hopefully change in the future." Susanne Burg, Deutschlandradio Kultur (German Public Radio) "Koester's mix of singer-songwriter songs and west coast rock sounds fresh, full of soul and warmth. [...] 'live love travel free' is filled with beautiful songs, splendid grooves, colorful arrangements and this sunshine voice that is able to magically get the hope for a rainbow out of an - actually sad - ballad. There's also a lot of variety and hit potential on this album: 'Giant's Basketball' surprises with gloomy gothic charm, 'Silverstar' should be on the radio, 'Casino' with Fender Rhodes and great drums, too." Matthias Schmidt, Hannoversche Allgemeine (CD-Tipp) "Braunschweig's No. 1 songwriter is constantly on tour through Europe and America - for her third band album she went back to her roots and invited Olaf Reitmeier (Hyperchild, Bosse) into the studio for her ballads and mid-tempo songs. The result [is an album with] international class and maybe will be [meike's] breakthrough with it's mixture between Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow. With 'Stop Haunting Me' she already has a potential hit song to start with." Matthias Schröder, Subway "[...]'live love travel free' contains 13 expressive pop/rock tracks, that come across as very different from the 'cookie cutter standards' that you hear on commercial radio. Her lyrics are thoughtful and often very personal. The same is true for her songs, and for the tougher themes she also doesn't shy away from tougher sounds [...]" Roland Kaschube, Bassprofessor "[...] The result is an album, that leaves nothing to be desired. Perfectly crafted, musically inventive and as variable in mood as life itself are the 14 tracks of the Braunschweig musician, [...]. Her compositions are brimming with ideas and emotion, an art that only a few know how to master. [...]" Claus Kohlmann, Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung.
On "Live Love Travel Free", the title seems to be program with Meike Koester as she takes her audience on a trip through life with all its confusing cross-roads and blurred lines and love that waits behind the most scaring bends, and to beautiful, distant and magical places where Koester introduces you to "jesters", "travellers on a mission and free spirits in chains", giants, still haunting ex-lovers, blind men in train station waiting rooms, The Fox and The Little Prince,...From time to time you will have to punctuate your trip to euphorically jump and dance around your car crying "Yes! Exactly! That`s what I always meant to say but was missing the right words! I feel exactly the same here!" or to pull off the road just so you can listen closer to what she says.And what she has to say hits you straight in your deepest core, is easy to relate to and comes in a language that equally touches sense and sensibility, using beautiful and unique images like "I want a straight line I can meander around" ("Tell the Universe") "I can see my skeleton move like a walking sketch from a medical book" ("Visitor"), "my head feels like some giant`s basketball it sometimes scores but mostly hits the wall" ("Giant`s Basketball") or "sometimes it`s just a fine line between committing and not preventing a crime so tell me which truth you prefer" ("Westbound Train"). Her words come in an expressive, enchanting voice that sometimes seems to reveal the ability to laugh at herself (and an incomparable groovy rhythm!) on "Tell the Universe", a powerful, really cool and almost hysteria-like dimension on "World of Illusions" and this beautiful sing-me-to-sleep-like quality on "When Stars Are Falling".To avoid rear-end collision it is advisable and absolutely necessary that you pull off the road before the first notes of that drop dead beautiful guitar on "Stop Haunting Me" enchant you and Koester takes you to that magical place where you meet The Fox and The Little Prince, for you will be way too spell-bound to take heed of the traffic then...The only thing missing on this album is one of Koester`s really rocking "I play the drums on my guitar" interludes, but then I guess you have to check her out live for that! (And it gets plain after the first two bars that she has an amazing and grooving command of both instruments, anyway). And I am sure you will find yourself singing these songs as daily affirmations in front of your mirror (Meike, please feel free to charge me for that ;-)), while waiting in long lines in supermarkets, the next time you are caught in the struggle against your own inner barriers or your talkative reason that does not allow your feelings to get a word in edgeways or in really any whatsoever joyful and moving moment on your own journey through life :)When Koester drops you home safely after that one hour "Live Love Travel Free" trip, the only thing left to wish for is that she will reach her destination just as safe and sound...
