Released in 2021 via Fire Talk, Mia Joy‘s debut full-length Spirit Tamer represented “something of a chronicle of [songwriter Mia] Rocha’s history,” as we wrote in our review. “A way of collecting the seemingly disparate pieces that make up a life in the hope of making sense of them, and learning more about the resulting whole.” A range of influences informed the record, drawn from across the years and a myriad of experiences, so that it came to sound, as we continued, “like snapshots from different times accumulating into something personal and unique, as well as always growing.” The 2023 EP Celestial Mirror furthered this project, digging into the ways in which our identities are shaped by our surroundings and those who populate them, and now Mia Joy’s long-awaited second full-length Star Echo Heavy Dove looks set to push things even further.
Woven from compositions that date the full span of Mia Joy’s career and recorded over various sesssion stretching across several years, Star Echo Heavy Dove feels like the most full-realised version of the project to date. A true meeting of practice, theme and style, where personal growth is not merely reflected upon but recorded moment to moment, creating an album which documents change as both a measure of distance covered and proof of the potential still ahead. The thematic cornerstone of the album, lead single ‘Wings of Desire’ kicks things off, a track named for the Wenders classic which embodies a theme of longing, juxtaposing an intimate sound with lyrics of distance and remove in order to evoke the sensation of desire in all of its burning nuance.
Watch the video created by Jordan Nelson below:
Star Echo Heavy Dove will be released on the 15th January 2027 via Fire Talk Records and you can pre-order it from the Mia Joy Bandcamp page.
Photo by Athena Merry