MARIA BC - Marathon

It's a fluttering of shadows, fog and fine rain, it's an ethereal, faintly psychedelic folk, barely scratched by muffled percussion, weary guitars and worn-out keyboards. "Marathon" is another fascinating chapter in a musical saga where the element of danger is represented by light, not darkness.

Now on her third album, Maria BC opts for tones that are less descriptive and more exploratory: enveloping sounds embrace words and silences with an otherworldly spirituality, yet the slowcore stride of the thirteen tracks is remarkably wild, shaken by a constant restlessness hiding within the leaden guitar chords. Even the author's mezzo-soprano attitudes remain suspended in limbo, at times resembling little more than a whisper ("Sabotage", "Safety"). The meditative instrumental settings welcome more composite harmonies closer to singer-songwriter fare, the emotional tension is richer and more varied, and the whole thing takes on the shape of a well-defined story.

That "Marathon" is Maria BC's most visceral album is clear from the very first notes of the title track, where bare, harsh sounds are put on full display, laid raw with noise scratches. That what follows is the exhortation of "As The Earth Turns" is telling: the author sets man against technology, warning the listener of the importance of our choices.

In recounting this eternal ethical dilemma, this endless struggle between chaos and life, Maria BC shapes folk ballads with unsettling sonic echoes ("The Sound"), tracks so bare they seem diaphanous ("Miami"), at times aesthetically seductive ("Rare") and even endowed with a thunderous physicality ("Port Authority").

"Marathon" is a shining example of creative and expressive freedom. Maria BC goes well beyond the rules of ambient-folk, shoegaze ecstasy and dream-pop allure, delivering an album that forcefully enters the same imaginative territory explored by Beth Gibbons ("Night & Day"), using different chromatic shades ("May This Rain"), and giving us one of the most original and striking works of the year so far.

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15/03/2026