The darkly ambient debut by NYC-based experimental solo artist project, Marcyline, is informed by constant sleep deprivation, paranoia, nightmares, childhood fears, dead of night noises from the forest, art films, and vibey television shows. Recorded in the middle of the woods in Upstate New York during the first wave of lockdown — Treegiver, out February 3rd, 2023 — is emblematic of the isolation and terror of the times. The transporting 9-song album is the vision singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Paraggio, and it was co-produced by close friend Drew Stier.
The hauntological album is influenced by the work of evocative sonic auteur The Caretaker and genre-defying adventurers The Microphones. Marcyline songs are moody, earthy, and explore the outer realms of freak folk, noise, and scuzzy indie rock. Chris’s lyrics are non-linear and not narrative based, instead he paints visual pictures with vivid and sometimes abstract descriptive writing. Live, these songs are brought to full vibrancy by Chris on guitar and vocals; John Baggetta on guitar and backup vocals; Drew Schlingman on bass and backup vocals; Stephen Papa on keyboards and noise; and Trevor Jones on drums.
Treegiver nestles the listener into creepy, wintery, and nocturnal folklore inspired by the woodlands of upstate New York. Intrinsic to its genesis and its aesthetic is an off-the-grid existence. To that end, Chris wrote the lyrics on a typewriter, opting to create in a pure way disconnected from the cluttered conveniences of cellphones and computers.
Today Glide is premiering the album’s first single, “The Clearing,” which showcases the experimental sounds that fuses lo-fi indie rock with eerie bedroom pop. The simple beat allows the band to layer in unexpected and occasionally spooky sounds that complement vocals reminiscent of Radiohead. The song draws inspiration from a ghostly winter woodland encountered on a bizarre late-night walk. It culminates with a cacophony of percussive and electronic sounds that gives way to distortion and brings the song to a chaotic close while still maintaining a respectable amount of melodicism. With its release date of October 28th, the single comes just in time for Halloween.
Chris Paraggio shares the inspiration and process behind the song:
“The Clearing” was the first song I recorded with producer Drew Stier in an upstate New York basement. Creepy and wintery in its vivid imagery and noisy textures, it’s a super stylized reflection of my own anxiety-ridden nocturnal woodland adventures. It was written and recorded during a time of constant sleep deprivation and fight-or-flight paranoia. It was heavily inspired by liminal horror and hauntology, and paints a set of nightmarish scenes that I always wanted to feel uncomfortably immersive for the listener.
In this sense, “The Clearing” builds a world for one to sit in and experience. I’m really interested in this idea of “worldbuilding” as a recording artist. Fleshing out complete worlds like I’ve seen in my favorite multimedia and expressing myself through that process is what makes creating so exciting for me. Writing this song was the first time I was really able to take all of that inspiration from television, movies, books, and video games, and combine it with my own feelings and experiences. Architecting aesthetically unique spaces, encounters, and environments for both the listener and myself is really what made “The Clearing” so electrifying for me to make.
LISTEN:
