New Music: Mara – Gazing Back

The atmospheric and heavy combination of shoegaze and post-rock that defines Gazing Back is dominating but never oppressive.

Mara – helmed by Belgian ambient artist Gert Stockmans – can be viewed as almost a mirror image of his Samatha project. Where the latter is introspective and ambient, Mara and Gazing Back can be interpreted as what might be looking back at you, fuelled by the propulsive drumming of Psychonaut’s Harm Peters.

The lyrics and vocals of Anthe Huybrechts border on the meditative, making sense of inner turmoil, finding the beast within and not so much taming it, as giving it expression to find inner meaning and outer release.

At times, Gazing Back is a dense and primal howl that unfolds slowly, never losing an outer semblance of control, no matter what is developing under the surface. Mara is named after the Buddhist figure who personifies illusion and temptation, yet there is nothing illusory about the tangible expressions of emotions here, ones that we are often expected to repress.

Stockmans has cited a diverse range of artists, such as Neurosis, Jesu, Grouper, and Massive Attack, as having varying degrees of influence on Mara. And while you can hear that within Gazing Back, there’s much more to be heard here, and learned from the song as well.

Gazing Back is the product of album recording sessions with Chiaran Verheyden and can be heard on Bandcamp and Spotify. For other listening options and up-to-date news on Mara, connect with the project on Instagram.