"The core members of Meta Marie Louise are Manuel Engel on synthesizer and vocals, and Kevin Chesham on drums. He and Chesham took their first steps in 2010 with saxophonist Hans Koch, followed the next year by their first tour with Marc Stucki. 'We've played more abroad than here at home,' says Engel, with performances in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and France. In Switzerland, the quirky combo from Biel/Bienne is just getting started. If you had to name the musical universes of Meta Marie Louise - it would be: Lady Gaga and John Cage. And sometimes Eminem also squeezes through a little door into the dense and varied cosmos. Locating themselves somewhere between jungle punk and psychedelic. Live, it goes like this: Over the rhythmic ticking of a switch on the synthesizer, Engel finds a throaty gurgle, and when Chesham takes over the drive, hardened and souped up, he can sometimes end up in rustic overtone singing. The music of  Meta Marie Louise is somewhere in the middle, between the notes, between the genres - unclassifiable, but highly present in the moment. This music is healing for dulled synapses."
Ursina Trautmann - WOZ



"New York resident jazz pianist Manuel Engel makes a serious impression with ME 3, cutting a stylistic dash with sometimes minimalist, always classical-influenced piano manoeuvres. Alithea, the recipient of an award nomination at the LA Music Awards, is a masterly piece, parading Engel’s full panoply of keyboarding artistry." 
John Stevenson - ejazznews 



"Meta Marie Louise created a touch of minimalist club music atmosphere. A dynamic, inventive game - it will be very interesting to hear these boys at a later date - today they are showing a promising creative potential of tomorrow - no longer a spell while stunned."
Laima Slepkovaite - Dot Jazz



“On his new, visually stunning 10-inch EP 'Phonometrician,' Biel/Bienne-based pianist Manuel Engel shows his intimate, introspective side. This differs markedly from the improvised and rattling, roaring groove sessions he practices with his band Meta Marie Louise. The six pieces, recorded on a prepared Steinway grand piano, are indeed reminiscent of two of Engel's musical influences: Erik Satie and John Cage. But the majority of these delicately set daydreams also reveal that Engel is a romantic deep down inside. He himself ensures that this side of him never fully breaks out. The almost tenderly intoned impressionistic sketches are consistently countered by the use of prepared strings. In the pieces “Gloom” and “Push,” this goes so far that he conjures up rumbling grooves from the piano, thus contrasting dreamlike contemplation with expressionistic outbursts. It is astonishing how much Engel is able to express in just 23 minutes." 
Rudolf Amstutz - JAZZ 'N' MORE 



”Engel has a knack for crafting elegant, cinematic pieces of music. And it is an ability he demonstrates splendidly on ME 3 a constantly shifting improvised album with an achingly beautiful, zen-like quality to it. Throughout, Engel’s classically influenced vision is experimental and refreshingly original: his playing is minimalist at times, exotic at others, and once in a while channeling Paul Bley’s more explorative imaginings. Finally, however, it is Engel’s piano playing that stars: his dreamy solo number Alithea ends what is a dynamic at times eerily hypnotic experience.”
Tom Barlow - Jazzwise Magazine



”Troika Trash, a project by Biel/Bienne-based keyboardist Manuel Engel, took the cake. A smorgasbord of homemade instruments and all kinds of toys was carted onto the stage. We were already expecting the worst, namely amateurish pseudo-art crap. But then the first hypnotic riff kicked in. And Max Usata began rapping incomprehensible stuff with obsession. Suddenly it became clear: this is voodoo! What a crazy mixture of one-chord proto-rock à la Howlin' Wolf and sound explorations à la Sun Ra, of straight-laced outsider existentialism and ludicrously naughty childish imaginations."
Tom Gsteiger - TagesAnzeiger



"Improv, psychedelic rock, hip hop, new music - what usually happens in separate worlds, stands here side by side even if it goes against all habits. This is (still?) no new music in itself, because of the methods used in the development of the music, but that makes it even more exciting. Especially since this act is 'not academic', but the joy of crossing borders dominates. Outstanding album!"
Trust - Sunny Spots Review