More about: Amber Mark

New York-based singer, songwriter and producer Amber Mark first caught the attention of tastemakers and music fans alike back in 2016 when she made her first single ‘S P A C E’ available on Soundcloud. Followed by a steady stream of single and EP releases, such as 2017’s 3:33am and 2018’s Conexão, Amber Mark established herself as a household name on the contemporary R&B scene. Landing almost six years after her debut single is Three Dimensions Deep, a debut album well worth the wait. 

It is hard to write anything these days without mentioning Covid, or lockdown, or both. Considering it completely changed the way most of us go about our daily lives that might not be surprising. Even if this year turns out to be the year when we finally get to go back to making plans to see friends and family, buy tickets to gigs and festivals, and book trips and holidays without the constant creeping feeling it will all be cancelled last minute, we will undoubtedly be surrounded by art and culture and music influenced by a time that made a lot of us question things we used to take for granted. 

Amber Mark’s Covered-19 project is a first-class example of how there were pockets where creativity flourished during the very dark time that was the first 2020 lockdown. Recorded and produced in her modest New York home studio, Amber brought us deeply personal renditions of songs such as Nirvana’s grunge classic ‘Heart-Shaped Box’, Sisqo’s R&B hit ‘Thong Song’ and Eddie Knedricks’ soul masterpiece ‘My People…Hold On’. A selection vastly diverse on paper, but a testament to Amber Mark’s creative talent in practice.

Musically, Amber Mark has a way of effortlessly bringing us with her on walks through an everchanging landscape, and her debut full length Three Dimensions Deep is in no way an exception. If her lockdown project could be seen as a showcase of her mastery of genres across the spectrum, Three Dimensions Deep further cements that view. If removed from the album’s context, each song is capable of standing all on its own and at times it almost feels like the album is a collection of singles rather than album tracks.

The 17 songs that make up the album follows the arc of Amber Mark’s personal and musical development and can be divided into 3 acts — WITHOUT, WITHHELD and WITHIN. “Three Dimensions Deep is a musical journey of what questions you begin to ask yourself when you start looking to the universe for answers,” Amber Mark says about the album. “I can only go as deep as the third dimension as that’s how we see the world, but what about when you start looking to the universe within for answers.”

The album is opened by the stunning track ‘One’ and lyrics such as “I don’t know if I’ll ever succeed / I just want you proud of me up above” setting the scene for the first part of the album. Amber Mark acknowledges her insecurities and anxieties before moving on to seeking answers to the world’s negativity and trauma, finally landing in a fresh perspective on life and a renewed sense of self in the blissful closing song ‘Event Horizon’.

At the peak of the album the Prince inspired ‘Darkside’ leads into what can only be described as the most Amber Mark-sounding song of the project, ‘Worth It’. It takes a while to get there, and 17 songs is long for an album, but important things must not be rushed. Whether you have been on a pandemic-enforced journey of self-discovery or not, Three Dimensions Deep is a stunningly vulnerable and relatable collection of songs. 

Three Dimensions Deep arrives 28 January via PMR/EMI. 

Issue Four of the Gigwise Print magazine is on pre-order now! Order here.

More about: Amber Mark