New Music: Mara – Anchors

It might seem like a contradiction, but for Mara, Anchors is a leap forward as it equally finds him back on familiar terrain.

Mara is the project of Belgian ambient artist Gert Stockmans. His work as a photographer for fellow countrymen Psychonaut led him to embark on a musical excursion of his own: first as Samatha and now as Mara.

Anchors does have a post-rock aspect to it, atmospheric and textural. Stockmans and his collaborators do find a place for a traditional but skewed anti-pop chorus, using it here to provide mood and added meaning, as the track continuously evolves around the listener, a blackened unsettling calm descends.  

And if the sound of Psychonaut can be heard in the glacial shadows and cumulatively oppressive and bleak wall of post-rock and post-metal that helps define Anchors? That may be down to the track featuring both Stefan De Graef and Thomas Michiels on vocal duties, while the drums are courtesy of Harm Peters.

Anchors can be heard on Spotify and all major music platforms – you can find out much more about Mara and Samatha on Instagram.