Album Review
Mia Gargaret
by Gia Margaret
By Sam Andersen
Mia Gargaret Album Art
Like any meaningful place, you can return again and again and have a unique experience each time.
As much as I love to hate on algorithms, I think that's how I discovered this record. So maybe they can do some good.
I had ventured into ambient music previously and had thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the first ambient works that I listened to were from Emily Sprague of Florist. Her album, Water Memory, featured lush, swirling loops washed out by reverb. It created an expanse in which the listener could think and reflect. Where they could be outside of themselves.
This is something that I feel that all great ambient music does well: it pulls you out of the present moment, yet places you intimately inside of it.
The listener becomes a spectator of all that is around them. Slowly, everything that surrounds you begins to have more meaning. You begin to ask “what?” less and to ask “why?” more. This phenomenon is ubiquitous in Mia Gargaret by Gia Margaret.
I feel like each track is a distinct, paradoxical place. The droning of “INWIW” is ominous and ethereal, yet beckoning. “3 movements” presents a deceivingly mournful landscape that is teeming with hope. And, like any meaningful place, you can return again and again and have a unique experience each time. Gia Margaret appears to be keenly aware of this. Her proficiency in composition shines in this album, but in a way that allows each song to wander where it wants to.
Another distinct feature of this album is the appearance of spoken word. Though more rare than common, Gia Margaret juxtaposes small soundbites against her backdrop of glowing, droning synths. Many may find such a technique as tacky (I did at first), but I feel like both the music and the spoken word complement each other in meaningful ways. Using these small soundbites, Gia Margaret asks questions about life, love, existence, and awareness. Here are a couple of samples:
From “barely there”:
Do you ever feel like you're living your life
But you're also barely there?
A conversation you can't remember
Because when you have them
Your mind was just trying to make it to the next sentence
Without anyone noticing
Photo by Rachel Winslow
From “body” (apparently this was sampled from a lecture by the British philosopher Alan Watts):
It is easy enough to stand still,
the difficulty is to walk without touching the ground
Why do you feel so heavy?
...
When there is no body left for whom the body can be a burden,
then the body isn’t a burden.
But so long as you fight it, it is
As with all music, the best way that you can experience what I am attempting to describe is to go and listen to the record. I hope you enjoy it. Make sure to follow Gia Margaret on Instagram and listen to “3 movements” below!