With a moniker that could not sound more perfect for an early summer release, Marigold Sun is the alias for a new solo project from Singaporean-Australian musician Eric Li Harrison which will see its debut later this month on Hush Hush Records. Leaving behind his home country of Australia, Eric recently relocated to New York and began forging a new musical path for himself which has grown from a collection of piano sketches and other musical ideas to a full-length album which he recorded between his home studio in Brooklyn and a barn in the Catskill Mountains this past winter. Given the location and timing of its making, one might reasonably expect Swimming to be an austere or melancholic affair, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The vision for the album we are told was to create the feeling of care-free weightlessness that one experiences when floating in salty water and if you close your eyes while listening it is remarkable how potently that sensation is evoked by coruscating piano lines and jazz-inflected melodies rippling across a sea of oscillating synth textures. Take for example “Branches” available here in an exclusive advance preview. As you listen, it is easy to imagine an undulating web of light forming on the ocean floor as the brightness of the sun filters through shallow water which is about as far from a gray New York winter as you can get.
Links: Bandcamp | Marigold Sun
Swimming will be released in full by Hush Hush on June 25, 2021. The album was mastered by by Ohad Nissim at 136 Studios, Funkhaus Berlin and features album & single artwork by Cassidy Turner.
Stationary Travels 