to belong, by marine eyes

to belong

by marine eyes

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shimamiya Gorgeous album. One of the best of 2024. Just beautiful to listen to at any time of the day. If you didn't believe in angels, you will after hearing this. Favorite track: cemented.

gstrizzolo Sometimes I think that this album came from the heaven to let us know what the angels listen. Favorite track: hushed.

aelia Quite possibly the most beautiful album I’ve ever heard. I can’t do much else than listen when I play it because the vocals are just debilitating.

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7" Vinyl Record [album sampler]
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Black 7" record housed in a 7-3/8", 8 guage semi-rigid picture disc sleeve with fold over flap & strap. Vinyl placed in a black innersleeve. Hand-numbered 4"x6" matte liner card included with album sampler tracklist and credits. Edition of 200.

Also available at:

🇬🇧 Norman Records
🇬🇧 Juno Records
🇮🇹 Soundohm Records
🇯🇵 Tobira Records
🇺🇸 PITP.US

________

"The limited 7” edition of marine eyes’ latest full-length ambient record 'to belong' hears a distilling of the original fourteen-track record down to just four selections. Though every track on the digital version of the album works in its own right, the choice on offer here - ‘hushed’, ‘of the west’, ‘bluest’ and ‘call & answer’ - are particularly deserving of the study on wax. Something static, nigh time-crystalline is achieved on the B2, with its held root note evincing something of the quality of an infinite dream; the A1 recalls some mix of DJ Healer, Malibu or David Motion with its three note tenor-pad lilt; the A2 gets at the best of both worlds, sounding like a paradisiacal bathhouse vision set in slow motion; the B1 is the tensest, opting for a moodier key, but its reversed guitar taps and sustained choir-synth working in a no less lachrymose aesthetic." - Juno Records

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6-Panel Digipak CD [numbered]
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Glass-mastered, silkscreen printed CD housed in a 6-panel, 300g satin cardstock Digipak. Clear cd tray. Numbered. Shrinkwrapped. Pressed and printed in the Canada. Edition of 200.

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1.	to belong 04:15
2.	hushed 02:59
3.	timeshifting 04:08
4.	bridges 04:18
5.	cemented 03:35	buy track
6.	of the west 02:17
7.	suddenly green 03:38
8.	mended own 03:53
9.	all you give (for ash) 04:02
10.	bluest 02:26
11.	night palms sway 04:14
12.	in the spaces 03:34
13.	to belong (reprise) 03:26
14.	call and answer 03:22
15.	catching light [cd exclusive] 00:01
16.	into change [cd exclusive] 00:01

about

"

i set out with my own
puzzle pieces, my own
cracked pottery and
created a patchwork sky

these are all parts which
teach me belonging is
everywhere and nowhere

"

MARINE EYES – TO BELONG (Past Inside The Present, 2024)

"Cynthia Bernard (aka marine eyes) placed these words in her journal as a means of encapsulating the strata of emotions and relationships that form to belong, her third solo album, and second for Past Inside the Present. Their syntax recalls ee cummings with its direct, evocative simplicity – fitting for a collection that creates such loving images of puddle-wonderful landscapes populated by familiar souls and stirrings.

Through Bernard’s meditative methods, belonging is approached as it should be: a rare and delicate sensation that might describe one’s place in the physical world, in the continuum of time, or in the arms of a loved one. She chiefly uses treated guitar, soft synthesizers, and layers of her own radiant voice to achieve a holistic sense of embrace, but to belong is also tenderly colored with field recordings and the voices of her dearest family and friends. In these we find a throughline to the love of journaling and documentation that previously inspired chamomile (Past Inside the Present, 2022).

The opening title track eases in with a menagerie of textures teased like yarn from a skein, with birdcall and vocal incantations arising and receding in gentle waves. “bridges” emerges from the fog with gently-strummed guitar and a clear-eyed mantra, intended for her children as they navigate the confusion and complexities of young adulthood. You imagine her playing it for them around a beach bonfire at dusk, a moment held close in unifying comfort.

“cemented” establishes a liminal space with speckled interplay of plucked strings from the cherished guitar of a late uncle, underscored by the sound of footfall from a walk in Bernard’s favorite park. Her journey carries on through “of the west”, a brief passage with equal parts melancholy and awe, composed in honor of her sister’s courage during a health battle; and “suddenly green”, which echoes the themes of idyll (Stereoscenic, 2021) by evoking California’s verdant season in its muted shimmer. Without doubt these are deeply personal creations, but you can’t help but be overcome by their disarming air of benevolence and empathy.

“mended own” reprises the stripped-down folk ballad mode with an introspective study of Bernard’s penchant for prismatic photography. Her inclination to bend, deconstruct and play with light – as exemplified by the album’s cover image – meshes perfectly with its arrangement, as each element is distinct in the resulting rainbow. She serenely sings, “This light held in soft hands / is letting go / of heavy stones,” while hushed details bubble across the backdrop in the manner of spectral remains on an overdubbed tape.

The final act of to belong summons the influences of long-ago lineage (“in the spaces”, written for the great-grandmother who created USC’s Little Chapel of Silence) and the unconditional love of close friends (“all you give (for ash)”) before closing with a two-part ode to gratitude and impermanence. “night palms sway” conjures the ritual of hand-in-hand walks at the end of the day, witnessed only by fluttering insects under the streetlights, and “call and answer” is a hymn to the muse who always sings when you listen. As a final song, it’s less a goodbye and much more a friendly see you soon.

marine eyes crafts her sonic worlds on a firmament of careful reflection, acceptance and, above all, appreciation of the vagaries of existence. When considering the contingencies that wind through any personal history, and the fragility of all that surrounds us, a sense of belonging becomes a profoundly precious thing indeed."

credits

released April 17, 2024

Written, produced and performed by Cynthia Bernard
Mixed and mastered at Ambient Mountain House by James Bernard
Assistant mixing by Cynthia Bernard
Cover art by Cynthia Bernard
Additional art layer by Bird Bernard
Design and layout by Cynthia Bernard

Marketed and distributed and compact disc copyright by Past Inside the Present
Glass mastered, pressed, manufactured, and assembled by Analogue Media Technologies Inc. dba duplication.ca, Canada

©℗ 2024 Past Inside the Present
This is PITP42
▽
pitp.us / pitp.shop
marineeyes.bandcamp.com
ambientmountainhouse.com

thank you james, ashton, bird, chloe, mia, asher, mom, dad, michelle, jenny, ashley, cash, tina, ellen, lacey, uncle bill + aunt robyn, my pitp brothers, and my great-great grandmother elizabeth holmes fisher. your voices, spirits and even a few musical notes are infused into these songs and i'm forever grateful.

◾️◾️◾️ REVIEWS

"What does it mean to belong? Cynthia Bernard aka. marine eyes only begins to scratch the surface of this question on her latest ambient record (yet leaps a great deal forward in wrestling with it nonetheless), following up her prior effort ‘chamomile’ with a distinctly beauteous fortnight of forenoon drones, all of which spur the realization that “belonging is everywhere and nowhere”. Belonging is indeed a kind of ephemeral longing of being than can only ever be partly grasped, attained. Through its looping washes of warmed, brackish, padded backwash - not to mention its many bass-undergirded angel choirs - the likes of ‘timeshifting’, ‘bridges’ and ‘mended own’ stand out as such revelatory highlights, all contributing to an incredible album of sonic diaristic reflection, in which every sound sticks out clearly yet plays its proper part in a humble, rose-smelling gestalt.

-Juno Records

✦✦✦

"We’re fast becoming very big fans of LA-based Cynthia Bernard here at Moonbuilding HQ. Here she takes centre stage with her third full-length as marine eyes and her second for the excellent Past Inside The Present label, which in itself is such a seal of approval. ‘to belong’ is a record about, as the title suggests, belonging.

For example, ‘bridges’ is intended for her children as they “navigate the confusion and complexities of young adulthood”. Current favourite track, ‘timeshifting’ with its sweet, ghostly vocal, or the beautiful ‘mended own’, a full-blown vocal track that kind of stopped me in my tracks. It’s something that could have sat on 4AD, a kind of 21st century This Mortal Coil vibe."

-Moonbuilding Weekly

✦✦✦

“Sad serenity” might be an oxymoron, but it’s also a perfect way to describe the music of marine eyes. The Los Angeles ambient artist deals in billowing textures and softly glowing atmospheres, but no matter how pillowy soft her compositions may be, they always seem to be streaked with melancholy. Perhaps that’s because she’s essentially a singer-songwriter, one whose old scars and heart-on-her-sleeve sensibilities can’t be obscured by even the warmest and most welcoming layers of reverb.

“mended own” appears on her new to belong LP—a family affair that also features musical contributions from her husband and two children—and like many of the best marine eyes songs, it shines by leaning into vulnerability. While it’s by no means weepy, it is ruminative, and as her soaring (and quite lovely) voice echoes out into the world, one gets the feeling that she’s momentarily dropped her natural defenses and allowed everyone to have a peek at whatever’s been lurking in her psyche. Love, loss, pain, regret, connection… it’s all in there, and marine eyes always finds a way to make it sound beautiful."

-First Floor/Shawn Reynaldo

✦✦✦

"to belong" by marine eyes is about the multiple layers of feelings and relationships. The album is light and elegantly simple. The music is relaxed and full of a pleasant sense of safety and calm—it's the perfect record for some reflecting me-time. On her first two albums, you could already hear and feel a strong empathy in the artist's music. This impression is even more noticeable in "to belong". This is likely due to Cynthia's meditative method. The delicate nuances of human connections and the emotional world that arises from them are always present.

There are 16 short pieces on "to belong". They nestle together and are inextricably linked. Right from the start, you feel like entering a relaxed and compassionate world—it doesn't leave you until the record's last chord."

-Sounds Vegan

✦✦✦

"As marine eyes, Cynthia Bernard makes ambient music that’s tranquil, grounded, optimistic, and unabashedly beautiful—I even want to say wholesome, somehow. It’s a lush, sentimental sound, fashioned out of jewel-toned synths and endless reverb."

-Philip Sherburne/ Futurism Restated

_________________________

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Past Inside the Present Indianapolis, Indiana

Past Inside the Present is the home of a passionate, collaborative artistic community in pursuit of the world’s most inventive and engaging quiet music.

Distribution through Juno Records (UK), Norman Records (UK), Soundohm (EU), PITP.US (US), Tobira Records (JP), and others. ... more

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to belong

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$92.10 USD or more (90% OFF)

7" Vinyl Record [album sampler]
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

6-Panel Digipak CD [numbered]
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album