Fall is one of my four favorite seasons.
As the autumn leaves trace their circle floating down to the ground, a chill greets the morning air and the sky opens up with splintered wonder. Melancholy touches all.
Maria BC’s debut album Hyaline feels like Fall. Hyaline, the adjective, describes something that is transparent yet there, like glass or a ghost or a memory, and it perfectly captures the mood of Hyaline, the album. Ohio-born, Oakland, CA based artist and songwriter, Maria BC is responsible for most of what we hear here, with a few special guests that include their father on church organ and field recordings made around their then home/apartment in Brooklyn. I hear shades of Grouper, which is a very high compliment in my vocabulary, but Maria BC’s classically trained mezzo-soprano voice and guitar has its own voice.
Mixing together different sessions, tracks recorded directly into their phone and samples collected over the years, Maria BC likens Hyaline to a “sonic collage.” It’s a project of patience, and trusting the process.
Beautifully layered, touchingly distant, Hyaline offers its own ephemeral magic.