Warm and dark, soft with stabs of madness, poet and songwriter Jenny Berkel’s new album, These Are the Sounds Left from Leaving – out May 13th via Outside Music – blooms lushly with detail. Each song is set in the micro-world of a keen feeling observer, trying to parse a mindful moment in a setting where it feels impossible to drop a truth anchor – a post-Trump, heavily gaslit world where perceptions of reality remain distorted.

Written about a summer relationship that took place in a city with little gardens everywhere,  “Lavender City” intimately examines lies. A breakup song with crescendoing strings, insistent percussion and hopeful harmonies, it’s about gaining the capacity to see clearly again – but with the painful entailment of anatomizing the lies that drew you in.