Jenny Gillespie's new EP "Belita", the first release on her own Narooma Records, is an intoxicating blend of folk, indie pop and post-rock, produced by Gillespie and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily (who has worked with Jolie Holland, Bonnie Prince Billy and Lou Reed).
By 2011, Gillespie had already self-produced two albums - the lush chamber folk of "Light Year" and the ambient progressive pop of "Kindred". After these musical journeys and turning thirty, Gillespie found herself returning to the original impulse behind her music, becoming increasingly drawn to her acoustic guitar, and returning to the sound she loved when she first picked up her mother's 1972 Martin as a teenager. She wanted to strip things down, while maintaining a slanted, atmospheric element to her work, and spent time learning covers of Vashti Bunyan, Bert Jansch and Bonnie Prince Billy, and studying African and fingerpicking-style guitar at the Old Town School of Folk Music.
Meeting by chance via a YouTube cover Gillespie performed of Sam Amidon's "Saro", Ismaily, Amidon's longtime bandmate, contacted Jenny to share his appreciation of her version. From there, a conversation grew about a possible collaboration, and Gillespie traveled from her hometown of Chicago to New York City to record a new work with Ismaily over the course of three weeks in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side.
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The resulting EP, featuring turns by Amidon on back up vocals, Marc Ribot (Tom Waits) on electric guitar, and Jim White (PJ Harvey, Cat Power) on drums, is a nuanced and modern approach to the folk genre--globally influenced, but intimately rendered, with precise yet imaginative instrumentation that delicately shade the dream-like narratives.
You can download for free a new track, "Creature of our Make", from Jenny Gillespie: simply right-click and save as... "Belita" is set for release on 10th April on Narooma Records.
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