For me, five years or so into attending this festival, there is always a discovery at Osheaga, and this year it was Not For Radio. This is the solo project of The Marías’ Maria Zardoya, and my god, was it atmospheric and ethereal. I adore The Marías’ album Submarine (2024), so had I known it was the same artist, I would have rushed to the Forest stage and moved with feeling.
I was only able to witness that last half of the set, but Zardoya immediately pulled me in while she sang “Comet,” dressed in an alabaster mesh dress, while the set was covered in a mossy nature theme, featuring a mound of green grass in the middle. The teal lighting echoed off the walls of rain falling, adding to the mystical quality of everything.
While most of The Marías’ music relies on catchy riffs and falsettos under a wall of shoegaze-y dream pop, Not For Radio has an alternative trip-hop rock, almost Portishead quality to the music, with songs lulling you into a hazy slumber and then exploding in a fury of gossamer repetition. Maria Zardoya’s voice has this silky feel, with her powerful falsettos reverberating into the sky. I appreciated the live band because this is a kind of sound that could have just been a backing track, but it’s so much more elevated with live instrumentation. After one song, Zardoya lay down into the grassy mound, as if petrified, while singing the repetitive chorus of “Back To You.”
A man clad in black — giving Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein picked up Zardoya and carried her off stage. After her band jammed on a synthy Castlevania-esque organ tune, Zardoya reappeared dressed in a gothic black dress. I suppose the White Not For Radio died and reincarnated into this darker, black swan version. It was all very theatrical and deliberate and made quite an impact in such a short amount of time. Now, I’ll be checking out everything Not For Radio has done and will do in the future, thanks.
Photos by Benoit Rousseau
