Tāmaki Makaurau songwriter Mali Mali (Ben Tolich) is back with his new single Croatia, a sprawling, piano-led meditation on memory, dislocation, and place.
Here is the blurb with more:
The longtime musical vehicle of multi-instrumentalist and lyricist Ben Tolich, Mali Mali is a songwriter who obeys few to none of music’s modern conventions, with his sound all the richer for it. If you’re here for big pop choruses or predictable song structures, you’ve come knocking at the wrong lighthouse. If what you’re after is just under five minutes of intimate, poetic, piano-driven contemplation, the new Mali Mali single Croatia could be your aural haven.
In the often impossibly fast-moving world of new music, it’s a true gasp of fresh mountain air to enjoy the return of one of Tāmaki Makaurau’s finest purveyors of intentional slowness. Critics such as Elsewhere’s Graham Reid celebrate Tolich for being “uncompromisingly true to his style”, and Radio New Zealand’s Nick Bollinger revels in the “vulnerable, unaffected” Mali Mali sound; an intuitive blend of indie folk, ambient, and experimental songwriting.
Tolich’s solitary songs sound as if they were recorded in secret attics in the dead of night, or in abandoned houses at the bottom of oceans, far from anyone or anything that might attempt to push or pull him into a more conventional songwriting form.
“Tolich conjures a landscape… Epic, cinematic” – Nick Bollinger (RNZ)
Originally recorded to cassette on Tolich’s trusty Tascam 488, Croatia began life as a lyricless piano piece, with no intention to take it further. No intention, that is, until a trip to his grandfather’s homeland.
“In 2023 my wife and I did a cycle cruise in Croatia,” explains Ben. “We stayed on a small ship of about twenty people and sailed to the different islands and cycled all over them. I had mentioned to the guides that my grandfather was from the town of Vrgorac and when we were sailing down the coast they pointed to the mountains (where the town sat just beyond) and said that’s where your grandfather is from. I sat and watched them go by as I listened to the piano demo, and then after arriving back home to New Zealand, the lyrics came.”
“I was wrestling with what felt like a second big depression in my life, and travel can be a dissociating experience when your head isn’t in the best place. This song is wrestling with that dissociation and trying to use my familial history to ground myself amidst some profoundly beautiful moments… while riding a bicycle.”
This is the first new music from Mali Mali since 2023’s exquisite Spirit Tide. Revel in the slow magic of Croatia, with the deceptively simple video being a backdrop for the song described by Tolich as “a meditation on the iconic crystal blue water that lines the Croatian Coast”. Perfect for gazing endlessly into as we get lost in its sound.
You can catch Mali Mali live all across the country in April, touring from this Saturday in support of the wonderful Fables. Tour dates are below.
FABLES ALBUM RELEASE TOUR
WITH MALI MALI
Saturday 18th April – Artworks Theatre, Waiheke^
Sunday 19th April – House Concert, Hamilton*
Thursday 23rd April – Pearl Diver, Dunedin*
Friday 24th April – Sherwood, Queenstown*
Sunday 26th April – Wunderbar, Lyttelton*
^ tickets from iTicket * tickets from Under the Radar
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