Corduroy Punk Records presents the latest instalment of Josienne Clarke noise. Oft described as the original ‘folk starlet gone wrong’, the professional air pump herself returns with an EEP. Yes, that’s right — EEP, not a typo. This 7-track ‘Extended Extended Play’ is a suite of covers and, in a typically contrary move, the 7th of which is a cover of her own original song Undo.

Not content with inventing a new musical format — the extended EP of covers, not all strictly covers! — the collection ranges from uncompromising traditional arrangements of well-worn folk songs The Month Of January and Reynardine to a cover of Radiohead’s Nude from In Rainbows. A Sharon Van Etten track, a rare Sandy Denny demo setting, and a side-swerve take on the Nick Drake classic Time Has Told Me also feature, ending with the aforementioned take on her own song Undo, previously released on the collaboration EP Such a Sky with Mercury-nominated jazz pianist Kit Downes, revisited and reworked with her current band: Dave Hamblett (drums), Matt Robinson (keys) and Alec Bowman_Clarke (bass).

This slow-burning, brooding and smouldering collection of covers reminds us that Clarke is a singer of some note — or should we say all the notes. She likes to push the idea she’s primarily a songwriter, but then there’s that voice, and you can’t forget that when you hear her sing other people’s songs.

These tunes have all been carefully selected to sit beside each other. As Josienne herself explains:

“These are all songs that I’ve been singing live or have secretly held an idea of how I’d interpret them when I gave myself the chance. Each one deeply melancholic in a way that particularly speaks to me, both as a singer, writer and an admirer of lyricism in songcraft. Obviously I’ve sung folk songs and covers before, and I believe an artist can say as much with an interpretation as they can with their own songs when set with enough understanding of what it is you’re attempting to express on someone else’s behalf.”

“This release is not a statement of intent; it does not signal a return or a new direction of travel; it’s not necessarily the shape of things to come. It is simply the opportunity to sing you songs I love, set in the way I see, hear and feel them today. As a songwriter myself, I think the real beauty of songs is that they can have so many lives. Various incarnations come and go, and the songs live on with the singing. So I’ve sung these ones with all the heart I could muster, and I may sing them again, in another way, at another time. That’s the privilege of songs and of singing.”