The recording project of songwriter/vocalist Melodie Stancato and multi-instrumentalist Zachary Taube, New York‘s Marjorie use dream pop as a vehicle of both comfort and exploration. A sound “easy on the ears and heavy on the mind,” as Maxwell Paparella puts it. This month sees the release of their debut EP Doesn’t Exist on Whatever’s Clever, a collection of songs which homes in on specific moments of grief in smooth and often languid circles. The motion might rock the listener into drowsy calm, though Marjorie’s focus never shifts from the centre of its closing orbit.
The duo have unveiled the title track in anticipation of the release, immediately pitching the listener into the uncanny balance between stillness and movement that defines their sound. Opening with little beyond simple keyboard notes and Stancato’s vocals, the track conjures what proves to be a falsely grounded quality for dream pop. But soon Taube’s vocals join in as arpeggiated synths and lazy saxophone announce themselves, and the track shifts with sly subtlety so that suddenly you are out of your body and far from the ground.