Musings

Alessi's Ark

Entirely unexpected discovery at the Social last night (I managed to make it down there to see Magic Magic – who were unbelievable, by the way – after all).

Eighteen year old Alessi Laurent-Marke gave an almost magical performance (aided by a twinkly disco ball) with an angelic, without being overly sugary, vocal reminiscent of Feist. The vibrato in her voice for the first track, Hummingbird, especially, actually sounded like the hum of rapid wing beats.

The sound is folky and mellow – and the band  have a charming humility and sweetness that made me instantly warm to them.

They’re offering a free download of the track ‘Magic Weather’ on their website and there is also a lot of music up on their MySpace and Last.fm pages. Debut album, ‘Notes From The Treehouse’ was recorded with Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis and you can hear whisperings of his influence here…

Alessi’s Ark are playing the Borderline this Friday with Peggy Sue and Blue Roses. If you like folk, for what it’s worth – I’d highly recommend them. My favourite track is ‘Over the Hill’…no jokes, please!