- Ambient tear-jerkers reimagined by Evian Christ, Julianna Barwick and more.
- French producer Malibu doesn't consider herself particularly prolific. However, what she lacks in quantity she more than makes up for in quality. Take her contribution to PAN's mono no aware compilation back in 2017, say, or her recent work with London's Dark0. That's not forgetting 2019's One Life EP, a collection of ambient wonders through which she reflected on the vastness of our natural environments as well as her fascination with the ocean. (Serious big Pisces energy, if you're into that sort of thing.) At only five tracks, it was a relatively compact release, and yet it still felt deep enough to bask in until your skin was hot to the touch. Here, Malibu invites a troupe of like-minded musicians—Julianna Barwick, John Beltran, Kelly Moran and Evian Christ—to scribble their own passages into the One Life tale.
In a conversation with Barwick for The FADER a little while back, Malibu explained that she had "images in mind" for each track on One Life. For "Lost At Sea", she imagined herself "floating in a very quiet ocean on a grand piano while it was softly raining." On her "Lost At Sea" remix, composer and pianist Kelly Moran casts her dreamy spell over this tranquil and slightly lonesome scene, offering a version that's a little lighter than the original.
Fellow Warp signee Evian Christ takes on the title track. He's been looking to the ocean for inspiration for his own solo work recently—his 2020 single "Ultra" was accompanied by a visual that starred a ginormous Hawaiian wave—and his excellent take on "One Life" is expectedly teary-eyed, and even more expectedly trance-influenced. Elsewhere, Malibu's siren-like vocals drift through Barwick's rework of "Nana (Like A Star Made For Me)" like coastal fog as the US producer homes in on the soothing nature of Malibu's voice. Michigan artist (and recent Malibu collaborator) John Beltran also places her voice at the forefront of his "Camargue" remix. Beltran, much like Malibu, excels at making the seemingly simple sound so much more expansive, with only the lightest of touches applied in the process. It's a skill he puts to use here.
One Life in its original form felt a little like Malibu venturing out on her own and screaming into the abyss. It was so personal and poignant, it was as if she poured her feelings out into the world, took a breath, then sat back to experience the same sense of calm we experienced upon listening, too. Across the record, Malibu's strings seemed to swell as if pulled by gravitational tides, her reverb felt as if it went on forever and her textures were so warm and comforting it was as if they'd been stitched together lovingly by your grandmother. One Life : four remixes largely does the same, just from alternative perspectives.
Tracklist01. Nana (Like A Star Made For Me) (Julianna Barwick Remix)
02. Camargue (John Beltran Remix)
03. Lost At Sea (Kelly Moran Remix)
04. One Life (Evian Christ Remix)