Keren Ann

by Nicole Pensiero

folk/world

She sings in a breathy whisper, but her songs have a piercing undercurrent. And the buzz on Israeli-born, French-bred singer Keren Ann (last name Zeidel) is heady stuff: She's drawn frequent comparisons to the King of Melancholia himself—the late Nick Drake.

"I feel privileged; he was such an exceptional poet and songwriter," Keren Ann says by phone. "Very few artists can reach this melancholic atmosphere with such perfection." She's giving it quite a go, though, on her English-language debut CD, Not Going Anywhere. Her whispery voice is cool, but not detached; the melodies delicate but durable, resulting in a jarringly textured masterpiece of mood. "When I write, it all has to do with instinct," the soft-spoken 30-year-old says.

And she had a clear goal in mind for Not Going Anywhere -- creating a cohesive record with a "Sunday morning atmosphere," as she calls it: "Very pure and organic." Landing somewhere between archetypal chanteuse (and close friend) Françoise Hardy and the steely understatement of Suzanne Vega, Keren Ann's mercurial shifts in tone are highlighted by the record's fierce austerity—her folk-leaning acoustic guitar gently enhanced by well-placed strings and winds.

After working with 87-year-old crooner Henri Salvador for his comeback album a few years ago, Keren Ann began her own recording career, putting out two French-language records that quickly made her a star. Not Going Anywhere became an English-language record primarily by default. "I often write in English and recorded these songs in English for my own pleasure," Keren Ann says. "To be honest, I needed to get rid of them, put them out there, in order to continue."

"People ask me how much of me is in the songs," she says. "And no matter what the story is I'm singing about—or how removed the lyrics might seem from who I am—I'm always in the songs, every single one."

Mon., Oct. 12, 8:30 p.m., $10, with Devin Greenwood, Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770.