It’s difficult to talk about the music of Eric Li Harrison aka Marigold Sun without mentioning the imagery of a beautiful sunset. It is the sonic equivalent of a contemplative moment one might have while gazing into the shifting hues of a dusk horizon. Swimming, his 2021 full length, is a collection of mini concertos which delicately explore simple piano progressions while scattering bits of textured audio artifacts throughout. The piano is played and recorded as if you’re lying on the floor inches away, with the belief that these songs were written just for you…

MC: Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about your process for recording such an intimate sounding piano on Swimming? Was there a particular inspiration for recording it that way?

Marigold Sun: During the winter of 2020/2021 I relocated from Brooklyn to a remote barn in the Catskill Mountains of New York and finished my debut album Swimming. I didn’t have access to many of the instruments in my home studio and was partly forced into a minimal setup focusing on an upright piano that was in the barn. I felt deeply inspired by the natural beauty of the mountains and tried to capture the quiet and intimate feeling of that moment in time. Ultimately, my goal was to create an immersive record, aspiring to reach that feeling of care-free weightlessness that one experiences when floating in salty water.

MC: Can you give us a brief breakdown of the instruments used on Suspended In Blue? Was there a conscious decision to record it differently than your previous album?

MS: The main synth melody is taken from a preset that claims to be a digital emulation of a ‘lead guitar’. That line was sampled, processed and played at different pitches throughout the track. Each sample has a different length and its own flow and when combined it creates a pulsating concert of melodies. There’s a synth vocal pad that surrounds the ‘guitar lead’ samples and adds to the fluctuating wall of sound. At the time of recording this track I was experimenting with different sound design techniques and sampling, straying away from the piano momentarily and reaching for synth vocal pads and expansive reverbs.

MC: Your music invokes a very specific feeling. Do you go into the songwriting process with a particular mood or physical setting in mind?

MS: 90% of the time I start at the piano first, coming up with melodies or sequences that serve as the base of a song. Having a solid melodic foundation is important to me and gives me direction looking for sounds that work with the melody or chords and build from there. I’m not too fussy about my physical setting when writing, I can get 80% of an idea down with at least a midi keyboard and vst’s.

MC: A lot of your playlist choices are 20 plus years old. Do you find yourself gravitating more toward music of that era? Do you get a lot out of it only as a listener or as a producer as well?

MS: The playlist features songs that were inspiring me at the time of finishing “Suspended in Blue”. I still listen to a lot of The Durutti Column and other spaced out guitar driven music from that era. I get inspired and excited by the lone ambient tracks that make their way onto albums that should never be there. Also featured are tracks from recent albums that have really inspired me by Jack Herer and Patricia Wolf.

MC: What can you tell us about your project with Nick Sheppard?

MS: Nick Sheppard is the former lead guitarist of The Clash and The Cortinas. Nick and I met in Western Australia, where I’m from and where Nick currently lives. During the course of the Pandemic we started chatting about potentially collaborating and in 2021 we started exchanging demos via email. I was thrilled by the experience and grateful to work with a truly talented musician and friend. The result is a 6-track EP that adds yet another musical shade to the Marigold Sun project. The EP out now on Hush Hush Records, a label helmed by KEXP DJ Alex Ruder, I hope you get a chance to check it out.

Artist Playlist

We asked Eric to send us what he’s currently listening to + inspired by in the form of a playlist which you can check out below:

ARTIST LINKS