Here we welcome City Pop into the world - a complementary addition to Mara’s acclaimed album At Every Corner and the first release on Pure Space for 2025.
Created from field recordings gathered during her travels in Java and Bali in late 2024, Mara was hopeful to capture the vibrant street music woven into the fabric of daily life. Yet, as she listened back, these melodies were constantly overwhelmed by the relentless sounds of traffic, construction, and machinery.
In City Pop, Mara leans into this sonic tension, amplifying the distortion and layering to craft a reflective assemblage. The piece questions what is lost beneath the din: what culture, what knowledge, what landscapes erode under the veneer of progress? City Pop is an exploration of the duality between sound and silence, tradition and change.