Critically acclaimed Oslo four-piece Maribel have resurfaced recently by announcing their second album Reveries this January on Oslo based label Splendour (of Montreal, Harrys Gym, Siinai). Blending shoegaze and dream-pop with cinematic influences Maribel create dark, distorted throwback pop. The tracks are guided by the breathy siren call of their newly added East-German lead singer Rebekka Markstein. As female vocals intertwine with those of songwriter/ lead guitarist Pål Espen Kapelrud, one is likely to recall the oft-referenced My Bloody Valentine or the Raveonettes.
On the back of their debut album “Aestheircs” (produced by Serena-Maneesh frontman Emil Nikolaisen) the band earned high praises form the Norwegian press and heaped praise from the likes of Drowned in Sound (UK), Soundvenue (DK) and GAFFA (DK) amongst others. It also saw Maribel implode, break-up and then reform with a new line-up including Pica Pica’s Rebekka Markstein on vocals and Bjarne Stensli (Harrys Gym) on percussion.
Maribel has toured in Scandinavia and the UK, including a warming up for Crystal Stilts and Interpol. In addition Maribel managed to captivate audiences at festivals such as Øya, Hove, SPOT, By:Larm and many others. Of their set at SPOT in 2010 Clash Magazine said, “Obvious influences from My Bloody Valentine, Lush and Slowdive (isn’t referencing to those bands the whole point anyway?) didn’t get into the way of what came to be an intense, feedback-laden sonic experience hinting at a very exciting follow-up. Looking forward to it.”
For their follow-up, they chose to co-produce the record with Bjarne Stensil (Harrys Gym) and received help from Emil Nikolaisen of Serena-Maneesh on synth and string arrangements, Nicolai Hængsle Eilertsen of Big Bang on organ and Stensil himself on percussion and drum programming. Of the recording process Pål Espen said, “I wanted the recording sessions on this album to be more experimental and open. I always have some notions of how I want the songs to sound, but I this time I also wanted the songs to evolve and grow while recording.”
The band is known for noisy and chaotic pop with sugar sweet melodies that are often compared to My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins or fellow Oslo shoegazers Serena Maneesh. However, since reforming Maribel sites their most important influences as film scores by like John Barry, Henry Mancini and Ennio Morricone. Darker and heavier sounds are accompanied by programmed percussion, which is supposedly influenced by hip-hop style sampling and looping. Pål Espen references many less obvious influences than early 4AD records; “If you listen closely there’s a lot of jazz inspiration on this album. I’ve been listening a lot to the classics: Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Astrud Gilberto etc. It’s not like it sounds exactly like that, but I tried hard to create a similar kind of mood that those great singers did… Rebekka [Markstein] has kind of a jazzy touch to her voice and it fit perfectly to the mood I wanted to create. Aesthetically speaking it doesn’t hurt that she looks like a French movie star from the 60s. She completed the album in many ways.”
