Like a yawning abyss, “Mary Mary” is a sonic meditation on loss created with a single analog semi-modular synthesizer.
“Mary Mary” is the new single from Guzzalina, released Dec. 28, 2019, a day in that dead space between holidays when it seems like everyone is sleepwalking. And at the end of a year, and a decade, that has brought huge changes.
Drawing on inspirations from across the ambient soundscape, the track was played entirely on a single semi-modular analog synthesizer: a Moog Grandmother. Playing the Grandmother on this track felt like coming home to Guzzalina, since piano was her first instrument.
Guzzalina also comes from a musical family. Her grandmother Mary, who died a few years ago at the age of 97, was a longtime church organist. Sadly, Mary was a hoarder in her later years. Due to a lack of resources, along with depression and partial blindness, she was unable to keep up with her home as she aged.
The song and accompanying cover art (photo by Guzzalina’s mother, design by Amalia Karapetyan) nod to these experiences in a meditation on loss, grief, sadness and decline. Over the course of more than 15 minutes, a single melodic theme is explored. It varies in tempo and resonance, oscillating wildly at times and gently at others. The piece explores a sonic landscape of hills and dales, dramatic tension and then, finally, resolution.