Mariee Sioux - Gift for the End (2012)

Described by the label as “a mineral album”, Mariee Sioux’s long-awaited follow-up to 2007′s Faces In The Rocks finds the Nevada City-born artist expanding her palette with more varied sounds and toning down the audible influence of her Native American heritage. "Gift For The End" was recorded between April 2010 and August 2011 in Placerville and Nevada City with arrangements and production help from Sean Kae of Dearest (he and Mariee also perform together as Salt Minds).

Says Mariee of the recordings, “I wish to give anyone a tunnel with these sounds to escape, explore or confront their darkest and brightest experiences. This was made to let you feel comforted and terrified that you get to and must be. This was more of a spiritual rehearsal and a journey through self knowledge, love, and questioning than just a record to me. Most of the songs pertain to some type of longing to understand why things are the way they are, why things are so painful, so beautiful. This is about death and the internal, mental, physical life cycle and the constantly morphing challenging beauty of the human experience”

Album art: