“Thanks to my love Joel, and all my Mills friends/cohort & professors. This record was born from that time, & my life is forever changed for the better.”
Planned in 2020 but delayed by the pandemic and the death of her father, My Inner Rest is the latest offering of sonically guided introspection by Oakland experimental artist Briana Marela. Closer in time and tone to the voice-and-ambient explorations of You Are a Wave than the indie pop stylings of the artist’s last release Teardrop Star, the new album (out now on LA’s AKP Recordings) presents 12 electroacoustic pieces originally performed live by Marela at the Mills College concert hall in 2022-2023.
Despite the dressing of vocal effects backed by electronic blips, synths, and overdubs—conjured by a combination of contact mics, camera tracking, and various other live/studio tools and techniques—the heart of these recordings is Marela’s voice. It feels almost primordial, as if many of the lines (there goes a chorus, there a bridge) could have been shaped into radio-friendly pop songs, especially given the accessible themes around self-value, willpower, and other wavering human faculties.
If it’s useful to compare this work to those by Marela’s fellow Mills College alumni, it’s more like Laurie Anderson and Holly Herndon than some of the more extreme left-field composers. A “cathartic close” to a life chapter for the artist and, for the those of us still grieving the loss of that East Bay institution, a soul-stirring dose of magical realism.
If you missed Briana Marela’s album release show last weekend, check out the video below of the artist performing these songs at Mills in 2022.
