Lyli J - Majjie (2024)

*** Limited edition high quality cassette version coming soon. Those who have already pre-ordered the digital version can purchase the cassette for just €5 plus postage and packing – send a message using the contact form. ***

See Blue Audio reaches its landmark fiftieth release with the welcome return of Lyli J and her album ‘Majjie’. This will be the fourth full-length album of her career and the second for See Blue Audio following ‘Micro Wanders’ released in May 2022. Nearly two years on, ‘Majjie’ builds and expands on the ideas of its predecessor and creates a musical tapestry that evokes the power of mountains, mystery and magic, and heralds the arrival of spring, while also remaining deeply personal and heartfelt in the way Lyli J brings to all her music. The album is a complete entity in its own right, of course, but the addition of three remixes from kindred artists bring further dimensions of audio expression and emotional energy to the project.

Lily Jordy is a French American instrumentalist, singer, sound designer and electronic producer who releases under the name Lyli J. With a classically trained background to accompany her love for electronic music, she has crafted a very particular musical sensibility that draws on organic, esoteric and ambient textures as well as influences from IDM, trip hop, folk and indie. All this allows Lily to give full reign to her creativity, and this can be heard throughout ‘Majjie’ where a multitude of sounds complement, contrast and cascade around us.

‘Majjie’ is her own creative phonetic spelling of ‘magie’ – the word for magic in French – and it is dedicated to the breathtaking landscapes of the Alps and how hyperreal they can appear to the naked eye (she lives in the French countryside outside Grenoble). This nine-track collection takes the form of a stream of consciousness and was born in summer of 2022 while preparing for a live show at the Hadra Trance Festival. Some tracks, such as ‘Tide’ and ‘Ouh’, Lily imagined as being performed in a hot desert-like setting with just a guitar; then as autumn and the colder months arrived, she added a serene, calming glue to these more extroverted tracks with deep soundscapes like ‘Chaconne’ and ‘Fountain of You’.

“Everything naturally came together as a reflection,” Lily explains “as a closing of that year.” This sense of long exploration leading to some kind of peace is a strand running throughout the music and gives the album its rich sense of identity. Whether with just guitar and voice, dub-infused beats or beatless landscapes, every track has its special role in creating the aura of wonder that permeating throughout ‘Majjie’.

Turning to the remixes that come with the album, German composer and sound designer Arovane strips ‘Tide’ down to its core elements to construct a vignette of ghostly ambience. Rhombus Index from the See Blue Audio roster also recreates ‘Tide’ in his distinctive pastoral electronic style so evocative of the Yorkshire countryside. To complete ‘Majjie’, emptyvessel, the acclaimed electronic composer and musician from New Zealand, assumes his cole name for the shapeshifting and orchestral ‘Fear of Drowning’ reimagining of ‘Within’. The result is a fervent invocation that hints at some kind of divine power.

As with ‘Micro Wanders’, this is an album to immerse yourself in; it’s a space where nature, magic and personal reflection exist side by side in the awe-inspiring presence of mountains. ‘Majjie’ is a celebration of their embrace.

‘Majjie’ is also available in a limited edition cassette version.