Maxine Funke

Hailing from New Zealand, the reserved folk-inspired singer/songwriter Maxine Funke produces hushed, enigmatic lo-fi acoustic analog recordings that recall the work of Vashti Bunyan and Sibylle Baier. Following short stints playing electric guitar next to her drumming stepfather Mike Dooley in the louder early-2000s groups the Beaters, Snapper, and the Snares, she encountered experimental musician and former frontman of the '80s Flying Nun act the Rip, Alastair Galbraith, who became her partner. Together with Galbraith and Dooley she performed on cello in the improvisational Hundred Dollar Band, documented on 2006's Waves & Particles, and later gathered stray acoustic solo tracks from that period into 2008's Lace. Although 2012's Felt offered greater uniformity, 2018's Silk wove in quirky retro-electronic instrumental passages among her songs. With 2021's Séance Funke wove additional experimentation into her primary compositions while achieving one of her most accessible statements to date.

She spent her early years on a small island north of New Zealand's mainland, where her sister's guitar lessons sparked her interest; at age eight the family relocated southward to Dunedin. The more animated setting opened doors to live shows, and she absorbed the contents of Dooley's valued record collection. The pair soon appeared together at local venues under the name the Beaters. An unsuccessful festival slot in 2000 with Peter Gutteridge's Snapper, along with two albums leading the indie rock trio the Snares—2002's Something Happened on the Way to Heaven and 2003's Dance the Dervish—prompted Funke to seek quieter forms of expression.

Material tracked on a four-track cassette recorder and inside Galbraith's home studio from 2004 through 2008 was assembled into her solo debut Lace, issued on his Next Best Way imprint. Epic Sweep subsequently put out the limited single "Oranges in the Oaks" in 2011 and the fully realized sophomore album Felt in 2012. Within a few years she moved to a rural setting, and in 2016 she began, unusually, posting online videos of gently fingerpicked solo acoustic home performances to present her recent writing. Employment as a teaching assistant allowed her to refine guitar and vocal skills by delivering soft, stripped-back acoustic covers to small groups of attentive children.

A burst of activity arrived in 2018 with a single plus the EPs Eternity and Home Fi, capped by December's Silk on the U.S. label Feeding Tube. After a subdued three-year interval she resurfaced in early 2021 with the EPs QuaranTunes Series No.14: Maitland St 2020 and Forest Photographer, both issued alongside the enigmatic P Wits. Her fourth album, July 2021's Séance, maintained her characteristically understated delivery yet reached a broader audience than prior work. That September she added "Equinox" to Mexican Summer's Looking Glass singles series.