Jacob Alon + Paulie Swan + Sara Parkman

Paulie Swan at Hackney Empire

Pitchfork Music Festival London Presents:

Jacob Alon

\+ Paulie Swan

In their debut album, In Limerence, Fife-born artist Jacob Alon introduces themselves as one of the fiercest and beguiling of voices in contemporary folk music. But to limit Jacob solely as a folk artist would be doing them a grave disservice. Theirs is a voice to stop traffic, a storyteller to provoke conversation, and a musician shaking off the shackles of any genre specifics.

Though their first songs have flickers of Adrianne Lenker, Nick Drake, Rufus Wainwright and other titans of modern-day songwriting, Alon also feels like a limitless artist. While their raw power shines through clearest with just a voice and guitar, they have the personality and panache of a pop star. In whatever sonic guise they take, their commitment to devastatingly frank lyricism and to pulling humour and warmth out of despair makes them a special young voice. Bittersweet symphonies in their truest form.

Throughout all of the twists and turns of their childhood and young adulthood, the love they didn’t receive and then learned to give themselves, music has remained the freest and most effective way for Alon to make sense of the world. Already described as having “one of the most remarkable voices of their generation” (The Independent), and “breathing new life into the singer-songwriter genre” (The Times), whilst In Limerence has “all the hallmarks of a modern classic” (The Observer), Jacob Alon is a one-of-a-kind artist doing evocative things. A genuine must-see.