Maria BC dazzled in 2021 with the release of their debut EP Devil’s Rain, introducing audiences to their sparse and chilling ambient pop. Today (Feb. 9), Maria announces their debut Hyaline, out May 27 via Father/Daughter in America and Fear of Missing Out Records in the U.K.
The album’s lead single “The Only One” is a gorgeous atmospheric song with choir-like layers that fill the room. Maria’s haunting soprano fills the negative space with guitar strums and scattered percussion. The single is a perfect synthesis for the album as a whole, comprised of various phone recordings, samples from New York’s Prospect Park and even organs played by Maria’s father at his church in Ohio.
Speaking on the single further, Maria said in a press statement:
It took me a bunch of tries to finish the arrangement for this one. It felt too sparse, while the song is about that full, effervescent, sun-is-coming-up feeling of new love. I spent several weeks adding parts and scrapping them — you know, getting nowhere. Then, at some point, I realized the refrain of another song I was working on had the same chord progression as “The Only Thing” refrain. I turned that into a kind of counter-melody, Liz Fraser style, and I think it tied the whole thing together.
Below, listen to “The Only Thing” and preorder Hyaline here.