Joanne Robertson

There is a quiet ritual in

Joanne Robertson’s music that feels

less like entrance and more like arrival.

Her voice and guitar inhabit a space

of immediacy and tenderness, where each

note lingers in the air

before receding into silence.

The effect is unforced, attentive —

as though the music is remembering itself while being played.

Blurrr, released on AD 93 in 2025 and co-produced with Oliver Coates, has been described as spectral, emotionally precise, and among the year’s most affecting records. Coates’s cello folds carefully into Robertson’s open-tuned guitar, deepening its texture without disturbing its fragility. Reviewers have noted how the album’s quietness never veers into absence — it holds space.

The tracks do not declare their themes; they surface gently, like fragments of thought or weathered journal entries. Songs such as “Gown” and “Always Were” feel suspended in time, shaped by mood rather than form. It’s music that values presence over polish, guided by instinct and an unguarded sense of pace.

This approach is consistent across her work — from collaborations with Dean Blunt (Backstage Raver) and Sidsel Meineche Hansen (Alien Baby), to earlier solo releases like Painting Stupid Girls and Blue Car, the latter drawn from a decade of unreleased recordings. Robertson’s practice, in both sound and paint, is archival and improvisatory, documenting emotional states rather than conclusions.

To witness her performance is to enter a room shaped by restraint — intimate, deliberate, and open to the unknown.

date/stage:
TBA

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