Malibu | One Life | Joyful Noise
Release: 1 November, 2019
Feature Image: Malibu – press image, photographer not stated.
In building narratives, the lucidity of the worlds we create is vital; the vivid melancholia of a strange dream, a lush landscape buzzing with life – blooming cityscapes, filled with individuals, following their own paths as they move about their daily lives; all of whom have their own stories. When building soundscapes, each timbre transforms into a storytelling tool; shaping an aural world for listeners to explore each time we click the play button. French producer Malibu encompasses these ideas, sculpting soundscapes of auditory fantasy with the intention of telling a story.
“I have the dream’s images in mind: blurry, dark, colourful, bright, distant,.. everything at the same time. I like to think that my whole process is like making a scene in a film, or in a video game; there is something very graphic to it.” – Malibu, in an interview with SHAPE (2018)
While she remains shrouded in a fair share of mystery, the producers tracks have left many in anticipation for more; from her appearance on 2015’s Psychotropia compilation, obscure releases gracing a now inactive soundcloud – her self-released single on bandcamp ‘i can see hills’ in 2017 and most notably her beloved track ‘Held’ featured on iconic Berlin label PAN – Malibu has remained elusive, yet with her debut mini-LP ‘One Life’ fans are able to lose themselves in a new body of work shaped by her unique narrative.
The leading track of the album ‘Nana (Like A Star Made For Me)’ billows in greeting, an incoming storm tinged with an emotional deep grey, looming over a restless ocean soundscape. Tender synth swells comb the shore, a gentle ambience shimmering beneath the lyrical undulation – Malibu sculpts a dreamlike atmosphere, a lonely beachfront and endless horizon, dotted with cinematic texture and the curiosity of her soft, reflective vocals as the track comes to a close.
‘One Life’ sighs open in strings, inhaling crescendo to exhale; a classical introspection with an underlying foreboding, an element of tender drama – a sweet sadness swirls with the cello as the engulf of raw ambience uplifts into a cinematic sculpture. A traverse through a blooming soundscape grows in progression, shaping the beauty of melancholia in carefully layered ambience and ever-dreaming strings, rising and falling – inhaling a hint of religiosity in timbre and filling the lungs with walls of sound.
‘One Life’ is a rich ambient expression of Malibu’s world, filled with waves of sadness while still glimmering with an aura hope and sunlight; like a novel or film, soundscapes become their own realms, shaped by the narratives we hold within them, and project outward – in ‘One Life’ Malibu showcases her ability to reinterpret her fantastical stories through sound.
