{"product_id":"4582561407338","title":"Gia Margaret Mia Gargaret [ARTPL-260] Japan Music CD","description":"\u003cp\u003eProduct Description\u003cbr\u003e\nGia Margaret, a Chicago-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, released 'Mia Gargaret' in 2020. This is a significant work that quietly but deeply reflects the core of her expression. Conceived as a follow-up to 2018's 'There's Always Glimmer', this album was born during a period when she was forced to cancel tours due to illness and was unable to sing for about six months. Having lost her voice, she turned to synthesizers, calming herself and shaping this album to maintain her identity as a musician. Bandcamp describes the album as \"ambient, almost instrumental,\" and Pitchfork also describes it as a work in which she built \"soft, meditative loops\" in place of her lost voice. The 11 tracks on this album, centered around synthesizers, piano, and acoustic guitar, weave together everyday field recordings such as footsteps, church bells, crackling fire, and the sound of waves on a lake, painting a delicate landscape where pain and stillness, loneliness and recovery intertwine. The opener, \"apathy,\" uses fragments of actual vocal therapy audio, and \"body\" samples the voice of philosopher Alan Watts. The final track, \"lesson,\" is the only song on the album that features Gia's own vocals, subtly hinting at the signs of recovery beyond the loss of her voice. The album was composed, performed, and recorded at home from summer to autumn of 2019, with some contributions from Emily Cross, Stephen Steinbrink, and Doug Saltzman. What makes \"Mia Gargaret\" special is that it's not simply a \"replacement work from the period when she lost her voice.\" Exclaim! described this album as a record of Gia Margaret's journey from anxiety to self-healing and the rediscovery of her love for music itself, highlighting her growth and multifaceted nature as a songwriter and producer. Clash also saw it as an ambient work without lyrics that speaks of rich emotions. Furthermore, Pitchfork reviewed it as a work that still reaches the listener's inner self despite her loss of her singing voice, and Stereogum mentioned it as a turning point in her career, where she significantly shifted towards ambient\/instrumental expression. This assessment was widely shared, and 'Mia Margaret' was selected as one of the notable albums of 2020 in NPR's annual best albums list. Gia Margaret would later regain her singing voice, but as Pitchfork reflected in a 2026 article, this album symbolizes that \"recovery period\" and is also an important bridge leading to her later work, 'Romantic Piano'. This album wasn't created because she couldn't use her voice, but rather it proves that music can still heal and guide people even in situations where voice is unavailable. \"Mia Gargaret\" is a work in which the essence of the artist Gia Margaret is crystallized in the most beautiful way possible, beyond the realm of words.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TOKYO JAPAN CD SHOP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53224847737141,"sku":"4582561407338","price":3900.0,"currency_code":"JPY","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1011\/5966\/5973\/files\/41TGHQNBkKL._AC.jpg?v=1785320639","url":"https:\/\/tokyojapancdshop.com\/products\/4582561407338","provider":"TOKYO JAPAN CD SHOP","version":"1.0","type":"link"}