Michael Sutherland

Michael Sutherland is a musician, producer, and recording engineer with a Commercial Music Degree (with Honors) from Massey University NZ and a certificate from MAINZ both of which focused on songwriting, composition techniques, recording, and music production. Michael is also a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and loop-pedal artist who specializes in ambient sound journeys.

Michael has a wealth of experience mentoring, recording, and producing projects from various genres mostly in the Wellington Region. He has been involved in hundreds of records ranging from solo pop artists to rock bands and also engineering larger jazz & orchestral ensembles. Michael learnt the art of engineering and recording by working alongside some of the best in New Zealand's music and film industry, and has a talent for blending the hands-on practice of the golden era of recording with the mind-bending possibilities of modern audio production. 

In 2019 Michael completed his first global project developing a full suite of music for Float Tanks for Dreampod LTD which was the first professionally recorded music for sensory deprivation and is now used in 70+ centres around the globe. This included a year of research development, recording and developing music for listening with ears submerged underwater in the Float Tank environment.

In 2023 Michael led another large-scale project “Music & the Mystical Experience” which was recorded for his postgraduate studies at Massey University in New Zealand, with 28 musicians at Massey's Flagship recording studio. This was based on years of research into the neuroscience of music, psychedelics, and of course recording/engineering. This created a 6-hour work for psilocybin therapies which aligns with the psilocybin experience, is filled with traits which support mystical-type experiences and increases positive therapeutic outcomes in therapy. This has been released a few months ago and is already being used in centres across the world.

Michael is continuing to develop & compose music for Psilocybin Therapies based on the research pertaining to music and mystical-type experiences, collaborating with clinical trials to create music that heals communities, brings incredible artists together and teaches us more about musics’ incredible role in these breakthrough therapies and

 consciousness in general.