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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 (Jolie Holland, Bonnie Prince Billy, Lou Reed).

In 2011, Gillespie had already self-produced 2 albums, the lush chamber folk of Light Year (2009) and the ambient progressive pop of Kindred (2010). 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 3 weeks in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side.

They discovered common north stars of their musical vocabulary (Vashti Bunyan, Mark Kozelek, Joni Mitchell’s Hejira, and Ali Farke Toure, among others) and decided they would create something that truly featured Gillespie’s unique acoustic guitar playing, set often to open tunings inspired by Gillespie’s most beloved influence, Joni Mitchell.

The resulting EP, featuring turns by Amidon on back up vocals and Marc Ribot (Tom Waits) on electric guitar, 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.

Creature of Our Make from Jenny Gillespie on Vimeo.

Click here to download the entire release