Noa Babayof

Tue., July 15, 8 p.m., $10, with Thinguma*jigSaw, Sharon Van Etten and Meg Baird, First Unitarian Church's Chapel, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.

by Shaun Brady

folk

Haunted and haunting, Israeli singer/songwriter Noa Babayof's voice falls somewhere in the spectrum between Sandy Denny and Nico, with the former's wistful strength and the latter's exotic deadpan. There's a crystalline quality that hangs suspended in the ether, yet scythes through the strange melancholy of her songs; imagine a shimmering chandelier in a funeral parlor. For her U.S. debut, From a Window to a Wall (Anova), Babayof enlisted the sympatico production of Espers' Greg Weeks, who supplied a roster of Philly musicians able to navigate between the delicate folk melodies and more jagged edges: violinist Katt Hernandez, Fern Knighters Jesse Sparhawk and Margaret Wienk, and the producer's partner in Espers and life, Jessica Weeks. It's an apt band that recognizes the uncanny currents running just below the placid surface of Babayof's voice, and can float along them without disturbing the illusion of calm.

Tue., July 15, 8 p.m., $10, with Thinguma*jigSaw, Sharon Van Etten and Meg Baird, First Unitarian Church's Chapel, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.