MĀRARA, which means flying fish, is a musical project born in the heart of a still too unknown Polynesian island. While Tahiti attracts attention and spotlight, Mārara remains in the shadows, ignored by tourist circuits and dominant cultural narratives. This project aims to put Mārara on the map and make heard the voice of an island that deserves to exist in all its richness.
Through this opus, we offer an immersion in our traditions, legends and myths. These stories, deeply rooted in Polynesian culture, transform according to their environments: for example, the legends of an atoll differ from those of a mountainous island, shaped by climate, terrain, and elements. MĀRARA captures this diversity and reveals its singularity.
This album is not just a musical creation, it is an act of cultural transmission and visibility.
Music becomes a vehicle of identity, a voice for an unknown territory, and a bridge between past and present.
With MĀRARA, we make our island sing so it resonates beyond its horizon.
On the island of Mārara, some places have been abandoned. It is said they have become shelters for spirits. ‘Infinite Beach’ is one of them : a stretch of white sand extending toward the illusion of infinity, slowly dissolving into the lagoon. It feels eternal, yet nothing truly is.
Even the mārara (the flying fish that gives the island its name) defies the horizon only for a moment. It bursts out of the water, suspended between two worlds, then falls back again. And again.
‘Infinite Beach’ embodies that repeated motion: an impulse toward the air, a brief suspension in weightlessness, followed by the inevitable return to the surface. Musically, the track unfolds as a slow ballad blending alternative pop with Polynesian.
With ‘Infinite Beach’, 15 15 crystallise the emotional core of Mārara: a world where myth and intimacy blur and where falling becomes both surrender and return.
‘Infinite Beach’
‘Fāfaru’
15 15
Mārara
About 15 15
15 15 is a French-Polynesian collective that blends music, image, and narrative. Their hybrid approach connects island cultures with urban modernity, between pop, zouk, dancehall, and electronic music.
Since their beginnings, Julia, Tsi Min, Ennio, Robin, and Marvin have explored the connections between memory and invention through unique concept projects: Ataheva (about mourning), Le Jeune (on colonization), or Saplin (celebration of casualness). Their work, both free and precise, is expressed as much on stage as in their videos or installations, often created in an artisanal manner.
Their new project, Mārara, imagines a fictional island inspired by French Polynesia: a poetic territory where traditions, ghosts of the past, and visions of the future intersect. Sung in English, French, and Tahitian, the album combines electronic textures, organic percussion, and vocal harmonies.
15 15 continues its dialogue between reality and imagination — a way of transforming uprooting into a space for creation.
