ABOUT

For more than a decade now, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Elissa Margolin has quietly built a catalog that stretches the traditional notion of what acoustic, folk-based music ought to sound like. Across her solo work, and group projects like Fine Line Forming and River Sister, richly textured vocals, layered arrangements, and a subtle, jazz-like complexity are signatures of Margolin’s songwriting, unconsciously reminding us these songs are hers.  

There’s an agelessness to her music: an authenticity in its appreciative nods to earlier pop music forms and features, and a natural folding in of contemporary influences. Since her solo debut in 2010, Margolin’s work continues to evolve in quietly meaningful ways, and with the steady precision of a self-assured craftsperson: ambient electronics à la Radiohead bubble up throughout Fine Line Forming’s self-titled 2011 album, while echoes of Sarah McLachlan trace across both “Love Anyway” from 2010 and “Pivot” in 2015. 

On her upcoming album (coming out this Fall) Margolin returns to the piano—her first instrument—to provide its foundation and focal point. These songs find her mining formal elements of classical music for inspiration as she doubles down on the present-day indie sound of her most recent work.