Santa Maria Death Trip is a Southern French garage psych outfit featuring Jérôme Dayon (guitars, vocals, glockenspiel), Emmanuelle Dayon (vocals, tambourine), David Migaud (guitars, keyboard), Marc Drulot (bass) and Pat Preacher (drums). After two EPs—Instrumentals (2019) and Seabeds (2021)—and a contribution to the mighty Perpignan Burning compilation (2024), they now take us on a colorful journey through the sumptuous debut full-length Lili’s Garden. We are taken along ten surfy but quite varied tunes—including a quirky sequel to their original version of Història—full of fuzz and reverb, with sun-kissed vocals, perfumed guitar motifs and suggestive harmonies. Although you can label the sound as vintage, it is not dated anywhere, rather refreshing and energizing.
Lili’s Garden, written, recorded and mixed by Jérôme Dayon, is out now digitally and on limited edition vinyl LP through Staubgold / Cougouyou Music.