Jane Weaver

English multi-instrumentalist Jane Weaver—singer, songwriter, producer, and label head—has ranged across numerous genres and methods over the course of her work, rarely lingering in one area even as she commands each idiom she adopts. After Brit-pop beginnings fronting Kill Laura and indie-folk detours with Misty Dixon, the solo artist moved from early-2000s folktronica textures to the fuller British-folk palette of her 2007 album Cherlokalate, then to the eccentric psychedelic experiments shaped by collaborators including Wendy & Bonnie and Susan Christie. By the mid-2010s she had turned decisively toward synthesizers, crafting airy, dreamlike pop shaped by Italian synth pioneers and German art-rock traditions. That shift first appeared on 2014’s The Silver Globe, reached fuller expression on 2017’s Modern Kosmology, and later broadened on 2021’s Flock and 2024’s Love in Constant Spectacle with added funk and ’90s alternative elements. Across every setting her warm vocals and incisive songwriting remain constant.

Weaver’s recording life began with Kill Laura, whose five singles appeared between 1993 and 1996 before the group disbanded. She next exchanged guitar-driven indie rock for a softer, folktronic approach, issuing solo singles from 1998 onward and cutting an album, backed by members of Doves, for Rob Gretton’s Manchester imprint. Gretton’s death ended the label; the completed Supersister LP was shelved. Her debut EP, Like an Aspen Leaf, surfaced in 2002. Concurrently she assembled the indie-electronic collective Misty Dixon and launched Bird Records as an extension of Andy Votel’s Finders Keepers. Misty Dixon issued several singles and the 2003 album Iced to Mode.

Following Misty Dixon’s final single in 2004, Weaver returned to solo work with the 2006 release Seven Day Smile, mixing fresh recordings and Supersister material. She performed a few concerts alongside Gruff Rhys, Josephine Foster, and Bonnie Flower of Wendy & Bonnie before commencing her next project, this time minimizing electronics in favor of an intimate, woody sound recalling British-folk forebears such as Sandy Denny. Cherlokalate appeared on Bird Records in 2007.

Weaver then paused to investigate lesser-known repertory, widening her palette to include European film scores, prog, eerie children’s folk, and darker psychedelia. Enlisting an eclectic roster—Wendy & Bonnie, Welsh vocalist Lisa Jên, former Misty Dixon colleagues, overlooked late-’60s singer Susan Christie, and Bosnian vocalist Behar—she fashioned a dense psych-folk amalgam for 2010’s The Fallen by Watchbird. A year later came the companion piece The Watchbird Alluminate, which reconfigured the earlier songs through contributions from Demdike Stare and the Focus Group.

Unwilling to repeat herself, Weaver embraced a pronounced synthesizer aesthetic on 2014’s The Silver Globe. The record drew from ’70s German and Italian electronic traditions, featured Weaver performing most instruments with production assistance from Votel and David Holmes, included guitar from Damon Gough of Badly Drawn Boy, and welcomed an appearance by Cybotron. A 2015 reissue added the bonus disc The Amber Light of outtakes and remixes. Shortly afterward she released the one-sided private-press Neotantrik Globes, on which Suzanne Ciani, Sean Canty, and Andy Votel deconstructed and reassembled tracks from The Silver Globe.

After years on her own imprint, Weaver joined Fire Records; her debut for the label, 2017’s Modern Kosmology, extended the synthesizer and dream-pop explorations and included a vocal from Can’s Malcolm Mooney. Fire issued the 7-inch “The Lightning Back” in 2018. Following a solo U.K. tour that autumn, she recorded Loops in the Secret Society, a set of subtly reworked pieces from The Silver Globe and Modern Kosmology threaded with cinematic dark-ambient passages; the album appeared on Fire in June 2019. Months later the label released the self-titled debut by her side project Fenella, conceived as an alternate score to the 1981 Hungarian animation Fehérlófia. Weaver resurfaced in 2021 with Flock, which retained familiar traits while introducing stomping glam, expansive funk, and soft R&B hues. Its successor, Love in Constant Spectacle, pursued a comparable stylistic course yet revealed more emotionally direct songwriting. Produced by John Parish—known for work with PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse, Dry Cleaning, and others—the album was released in April 2024.