British folk singer/songwriter Josienne Clarke channels longing through understated guitar arrangements that sustain a melancholy atmosphere, whether supported by a chamber orchestra during her partnership with Ben Walker or performing alone. Following four joint albums with Walker, she issued her first solo album, In All Weather, in 2019. Two years afterward came her second album, the more indie rock-oriented A Small Unknowable Thing, before the inward-looking Parenthesis, I appeared in 2024.
Recognized early for exceptional vocal ability by her music teachers, Clarke accepted their encouragement to enter Brighton Festival Choir at age 16. In the mid-2000s she relocated to London after starting and then leaving three separate classical music degrees. During frequent open-mike appearances she encountered Ben Walker in 2009, leading the pair to establish Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker. The duo issued four albums, with the final two—2016’s Overnight and 2018’s Seedlings All—appearing on Rough Trade.
Seeking a return to stripped-back folk music, Clarke ended the collaboration and relocated to Scotland. In her new setting she launched a solo career while joining PicaPica with Samantha Whates, Adam Beattie, and Sonny Johns. Her debut solo album, 2019’s In All Weather, featured Johns along with experimental pianist Elliot Galvin, jazz drummer Dave Hamblett, and Scottish harpist Mary Ann Kennedy. In 2021 she released her second full-length, A Small Unknowable Thing, which contained the defiant and sonically divergent single “Sit Out.” Two years later Clarke re-recorded and reclaimed earlier material on the intimate Onliness. 2024 brought Parenthesis, I, a dynamic and emotionally vulnerable collection that pairs the earthy folk style of artists like Nick Drake and Sandy Denny with the sound of contemporaries like Anaïs Mitchell and Lucy Dacus.
