Johanna Warren: nūmūn

Even without knowing the album’s unabashed bohemian mission statement, words like “celestial” spring to mind on these tracks from Portland’s Johanna Warren. But they also conjure up something more personal and haunting than what she calls a dedication to the phases of the moon. “Figure 8,” “True Colors,” and “Less Traveled” aim inward as much as they pull from the heavens, recalling the intimacy of Nick Drake, Sibylle Baier, and Sam Beam, as much as broader-minded luminaries like Joni Mitchell and a long list of British folk forebears. These hushed tunes do, as she says, “make peace with the cycles of all natural things,” but they sure do find a pretty way to make peace within oneself, too. The LP, nūmūn, is out via Team love next month.