Mirel Wagner

Singer/songwriter Mirel Wagner shapes gothic folk that echoes the brooding lineage of lyricists stretching from Billie Holiday through Leonard Cohen to Hope Sandoval, all while forging a voice distinctly her own. Ethiopia marks her birthplace, though she grew up in Espoo, Finland, where music first entered her life at seven with violin lessons; guitar replaced the violin at thirteen, and songwriting followed three years after that. One of those initial compositions, “To the Bone,” opens her debut record. American journalist Jean Ramsay, then living in Finland, first encountered Wagner during an open-mike night in Helsinki; his enthusiastic notices steered the artist into a studio, where she recorded twelve songs across two days. The resulting self-titled full-length appeared across Europe in February 2011 and reached the United States by March 2012, revealing her poetic, darkly romantic lyrics, weary yet sensual vocals, and minimalist, trance-like guitar work. Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti, widely recognized for his projects Luomo and Vladislav Delay, joined her on the follow-up. His polished, cavernous touch on 2014’s When the Cellar Children See the Light of Day intensified the music’s haunting atmosphere.