When Maribou State consider the new music they’ve made over the past few years, one word jumps out: togetherness. Chris Davids and Liam Ivory were propelled onto the world’s stage with their 2015 debut album Portraits, followed by 2019’s equally acclaimed Kingdom In Colour, both redefining soulful, downtempo electronica for a new generation. There’d been world tours, dates at majestic venues like Sydney Opera House and a roadblock set at Glastonbury, as well as Artist of the Year accolades and a hugely successful single with Khruangbin (‘Feel Good’). But nothing could have prepared the duo for what happened when they made their third album – the biggest test of their careers yet.
The year 2020 was supposed to be a reset, with time set aside to work on new material. But they soon started spiralling. Chris was facing chronic insomnia and getting to grips with a recent ADHD diagnosis; Liam developed crippling anxiety – and that’s not to mention everything that was going on globally at the time. “There was a massive fallout from us touring the world and then as soon as we finished, being locked down,” says Liam. “Our mental health plummeted.”
They were feeling the pressure in more ways than one, and ended up scrapping their first draft. Writing trips were booked in to help jumpstart a new creative flow. Then, in late 2021, Chris started experiencing chronic headaches. After one such trip the following spring – where the duo wrote some of their best music yet – he finally received the diagnosis: a rare condition called chiari malformation that causes pressure on the brain. “It was brutal,” says Chris, while Liam adds: “It was heartbreaking to see him try and push on in the studio, sometimes he would keel over from the pain and then try to push on with work again.”
Eventually, something had to give. Chris underwent surgery in November 2023, just as their album was coming close to being finished. The experience has brought Maribou State – friends since their teens back in Hertfordshire, just outside of London – close like never before. That album, poignantly titled Hallucinating Love, is imbued with a special warmth, the kind of rush of being with your friends in a festival field, hugging them tightly, and of triumphing over a challenging few years. The pair also made the difficult decision to delay its release, so that Chris could have the recovery time he needed. There were serious complications with surgery and, at one point, concerns that he might not make it. Thankfully he pulled through – and the duo are grateful to their fans for their support. “They’ve been so compassionate and understanding during this time, it’s been really amazing,” says Chris.
Hallucinating Love is worth the wait: it’s ambitious, packed with sublime anthemia, and is injected with restless energy, soaring strings and stunning guest vocals from long-standing collaborator Holly Walker and new friends like MOBO-nominated artist Andreya Triana. It evidences Maribou State’s evolving balance of intimacy and intricacy, as well as their knack for making epic sundown music. Says Liam: “When we were writing, we were imagining how great it’d feel to finally be back onstage, bringing people together again.” The overall feeling is one of hope. Hallucinating Love is “about being in a dark place, a place of struggle, and then looking forward to bright futures,” Chris explains.
They established new healthier, more structured ways of working – “involving lots of matcha tea!” quips the latter. “We reframed the way that we approached making music,” adds Liam.
“It's essentially been musical therapy,” says Chris. “It has just got us to communicate better, and that has been really powerful.”
Working more closely with others also helped to mine musical gold, at various recording sessions in bucolic settings around the country. Liam and Chris invited along collaborators like incredibly talented producer Jack Sibley and bassist Jonjo Williams, creating little makeshift communities wherever they went. It infused their music with a new energy. On the album’s lead single ‘Blackoak’, you can even hear an amateur choir of friends, recorded in the stairwell of an old country house during one of their stays.
Hallucinating Love has an earthy charm, echoing the countryside settings of those writing retreats. The woody soul of ‘Blackoak’ is buoyed by beautiful strings and syrupy analogue synth, or there’s the cabin-folk of ‘Rolling Stone’ and the Celtic marching drums of standout track ‘Peace Talk’, on which Holly Walker delivers a truly superb vocal performance. She returns on another highlight, ‘Otherside’, too – a joyful blast of soul-pop that evokes careening along the coastline in California. The field recordings and samples in their music – for which the duo are known – give their sound a richly layered texture, like a dusty cassette tape found in the bottom of a glovebox. And here they take it all to the next level: ‘Dance on the World’, ‘Otherside’, ‘Peace Talk’ are among their most expansive tunes yet – evidencing just their skill as songwriters. Second single ‘All I Need’ is classic Maribou, a trick-mirror of melancholy and hope, with Andreya Triana’s gorgeous vocal cushioned by a propulsive, glitchy trip-hop beat, brightly-lit guitar and ghostly omnichord. This being Maribou State, the songs are evocative and full of gorgeous details – see ‘Bloom’’s guitar line, unfurling like a flower, with drum flourishes that gently recall old-skool rave.
Crucially, the duo wanted to reflect the lineage of great British electronic music, from jungle and UK garage to IDM and trance, and celebrate its influence as well as their place in that history. “We’ve always been very hidden in the project, and revelled in the ambiguity and anonymity,” admits Liam. “But as we've gotten older, we've wanted to show who we are much more. And naturally it made sense to then point towards British dance music culture because it's something to be really proud of.” There are some left-turns too you might not expect from the pair, too. The kosmische groove of Ekos (say it echoes) stands out, and was the first song that Chris wrote for the album, sampling his father’s old Eko guitar. “It's the first time I'd sung on anything of ours that's been released,” he says.
Even during their darkest days, Maribou State found a way to challenge themselves and push themselves creatively forward. And they’re entering this new phase stronger than ever before – not just as producers but as artists too. “We’re so much more connected as a duo now,” says Liam. “We’re more grounded and resilient.”
