Maribou State: 2025
Maribou State's Chris Davis and Liam Ivory (photo by Kara Manning for FUV)
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Chris Davids and Liam Ivory of Maribou State have recorded emotional, vivid, and warm songs over the years with their albums Portraits — which turns 10 this year — and 2018's Kingdoms in Colour. However, the duo has reached its artistic peak to date with their third album, 2025's Hallucinating Love.
Not only does the album brim with jungle, trance, flashes of gospel, and back-to-mine bliss-outs, but it was born out of some dark times for these two longtime friends. With Hallucinating Love, they seize upon light, hope, and what it means to have a new lease on life.
Davids, who had been wracked with terrible headaches in 2021, was diagnosed with Chiari malformation in 2022, an extremely painful brain condition. He underwent surgery in November 2023 and spent a part of 2024 recovering. Concurrently, Ivory was facing his own challenges, concentrating on his own wellbeing. For these two musicians, walking back on stage feels especially sweet, whether at Glastonbury or their return to New York at Terminal 5, where the pair were joined by touring members Talulah Ruby on vocals, bassist and percussionist Jonjo Williams, drummer Jonny Cade, and a string quartet.
The duo's setup is a complicated one, so Chris and Liam came to the Bronx on their own for a conversation and later sent along live performances of four songs — "Otherside" (with Ruby), "Blackoak," "All I Need," (with Ruby and an Andreya Triana sample), and "Dance On the World" (with a North Downs sample) — all drawn from Maribou State's Denver show at the Ogden Theater on April 24 of this year.
Davids and Ivory spoke extensively about the challenges they faced on the road to Hallucinating Love — and what it means to persevere, a much-needed perspective on hope in these chaotic times. Hallucinating Love is an album that circles, drifts, and soars around ideas of healing and love, and my chat with Davids and Ivory is one of my absolute favorites of this year.
[Recorded: 5/5/25; produced by Meghan Suma. Music recorded by Jay Heigl at Denver's Ogden Theater on 4/24/25.]
