Louisa Stancioff

Louisa Stancioff crafts intimate, soft-focus reflections that intersect alt-country, indie folk, and the more meditative side of influences including Lou Reed, Cowboy Junkies, and Faye Webster. Her full-length debut, 2024's When We Were Looking, was steeped in themes of heartbreak and uncertainty.

Raised in rural Maine, Stancioff sang roots music with friends from an early age and absorbed traditional Bulgarian songs through her paternal grandfather's lineage. She later toured with her cousin in the band Dyado, whose name plays on the Bulgarian word "diado" for grandfather. After several years, she left the group to develop her guitar technique and compose original material, relocating repeatedly across the country for a series of odd jobs that took her through Maine, Alaska, and Southern California. While gathering songs centered on uncertainty, she encountered Maine-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Lake Street Dive) at a performance; she then returned to Maine, settling once more in her late grandfather's house to collaborate with him. Together they recorded her debut at Kassirer's Great North Sound Society studio, a converted farmhouse in Parsonsfield, where only a small group of additional musicians—primarily drummers—appeared on select tracks. The resulting When We Were Looking, colored by country, folk, psychedelia, and emotional weight, was released by Yep Roc in April 2024.