Léna Bartels: On her sophomore album of abidingly strange and brilliant rock songs, The Brightest Silver Fish, Léna Bartels often writes from somewhere in between emotions. The Brooklyn singer-songwriter observes patterns playing out between her narrators and others—sometimes from a great distance, sometimes from so close that all we can make out is gradient color and blurred motion. She explores the unintentionally destructive ways we express care for one another—how coercion can feel inseparable from desire, and how people become so accustomed to feeling disempowered that they forget their own agency. Informed by the attitude of ‘90s alt-rock and the tight craftsmanship of classic singer-songwriters like Rickie Lee Jones and Aimee Mann, Bartels shifts her musical landscape boldly with the needs of each scene, creating distorted images of a haunted, uncertain world.

The Brightest Silver Fish follows Bartels’ potent debut Preservation (2022) and this winter’s split release with Nico Hedley, It’s Gonna Be a Wonderful New Year. It is to be released September 12th, 2025 via Glamour Gowns.

Nora Knight is a songwriter/multi-instrumentalist based in the Hudson Valley who writes songs with emotionally direct lyrics in non standard tunings, fitting somewhere in between indie folk and alt country. Historically a collaborator and drummer in numerous other projects (Constant Smiles, Maryse Smith), Nora has finally begun to settle into releasing music under her own name with a self-released EP available to stream and a full-length album soon to come.

Harrison Basch is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from the Hudson Valley, New York. His songs are poetic folk sometimes dark and jangly, sometimes upright and exposed. He has self-released three albums and performed with various renditions on the east and west coasts.

Léna Bartels / Nora Knight / Harrison Basch

Léna Bartels / Nora Knight / Harrison Basch