Pigeon Spins Folk Featuring Audren, Oaken Lee, and More!
- Pigeon
- Aug 2, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 4, 2025
The #194 edition of Pigeon Spins Folk is here! The list features Audren, Oaken Lee, Stephen Foster, Michellar, Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends, Raphael Jae, BENJAMIN QUARTZ, Prem Byrne, Sean Medicina, and More!
Audren - A New Page
Audren is a singer-songwriter, and also a poet and best-selling novelist. No wonder she wrote a song called ‘A New Page’! Yet, she admits she wasn’t thinking about books when she started working on the lyrics. She said it was more about finding the courage to turn a new page in her own life. At that time, she needed to embrace the healing power of music, nature, and love to forget about the hard times she had been through.
The making of the song was a beautiful and intense musical adventure. Audren’s vocals take an important place in this intimate and heartfelt Indie Pop/Folk production. Audren wanted them to point out the multiple sensory stimuli and numerous enchanting thoughts popping out in your head when the future looks bright and everything becomes possible. Then nature is more appealing than ever; you feel dizzy and joyful enjoying the breeze on your face, the colors of sunsets, the flutter of butterflies, and the gentle stirring of life and hope.
Jazz guitarist and producer Chris Rime (Audren’s companion) wrote arrangements for a symphonic orchestra to add effulgence to their already mesmerizing project. More than 70 musicians were then involved in a very emotional recording session. And, as in Audren’s house, music is a family affair, Jemily Rime, her daughter, plays fretless bass on the track. The song is as tasty as homemade cookies, as warm as laughing around a fireplace with the people you love, as uplifting as a walk in the fresh open air.
A New Page is the first single release from the forthcoming album (Oct. 2025 ) THINK FREEDOM (a nod to Aretha Franklin). It’s a poetic source of exhilarating oxygen.
Song links http://tunelink.to/AUDREN
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Oaken Lee - Home (is a folk-rock mixtape)
Acoustic guitars and field recordings, drum machines and distorted bass - on Home (is a folk-rock mixtape) Oaken Lee explores our changing relationship with home. If you’re looking for a lead track I’d suggest Christopher St - which details the last scene of a road movie: a couple on the run, hiding away in a mountain cabin with the police closing in…
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Stephen Foster - Sharing Perils
Santa Cruz-based singer-songwriter Stephen Foster crafts songs that blend acoustic intimacy, slow-burning sadness, and flickers of light. Sharing Perils moves from windswept western haze to twilight instrumentals — some tracks swelling with full-band color, others whispering with just voice and guitar. It’s a varied, emotionally grounded collection united by space, melody, and restraint.
Stephen Foster says:
I hated Pearl Jam in high school and still do, Radiohead's ‘Creep’ is a bad song, and Beck’s 'Mutations' destroys 'Odelay'. Teenage-me stood by Sonic Youth and Slayer, not flannel-softball teams.'
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Michellar - Aunque sea por una noche ( If its only for one night )
With "Aunque por sea una noche," Michellar ventures into uncharted territory, marking her debut Spanish song that showcases her musical versatility and cultural exploration. The track delves into the theme of fleeting love and the lasting impact it can have on one's life, inviting listeners to embrace the warmth of its melodies. Recorded at the Women's Audio Mission recording studio, this release is a testament to Michellar's passion for creating music that reflects her identity and aspirations for the future, hinting at more exciting projects to come.
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Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends - Summer's Gate
The closing track of the double album 17 BIRDS AT THE SUMMER'S GATE. Clocking in at plus 12 minutes, it's probably not for all, but if you like epic songs of the seventies like Pink Floyd, this might be right up your alley. The song was written in 2020, before the war in Ukraine and disastrous developments in the Middle East, but it could have been written today.
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Raphael Jae - Toxins
'Toxins' is grief for a future never lived, and a part of Raphael Jae that died to a relationship. It's a mournful anthem about love devolving into martyrdom and self-sacrifice. This is a very personal song, and it's the one that taught him how music could heal. It let him take all those terrible, haunting feelings and turn them into something beautiful. Something Raphael Jae could be proud of.
Somewhere between the styles of Noah Kahan and Ed Sheeran, 'Toxins' builds from soft guitar to grand arrangements. 'It is my first fully-produced song to be published, and I used classical and folk influences in my composition, woven with pop and indie styles' says Raphael Jae.
Raphael Jae says:
'Maybe that I don't really see the appeal of heavy metal. No shade to people who listen to it, to each their own.'
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BENJAMIN QUARTZ - Frénésie
With Frénésie, Benjamin Quartz delivers a striking first single from his new album Sombre Samba, a song that pulses like an overactive heart. Between restrained tension and acoustic warmth, the track recounts inner vertigo, racing thoughts, and overflowing desire, all carried by a refined and organic orchestration.
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Prem Byrne - Commercial Break
Released on 11th July 2025, "Commercial Break" is a powerful anthem that captures the frustration many feel towards profit-driven media. Recorded at AR Audio in San Francisco, this track marks a significant shift in Prem Byrne's sound, incorporating electronica elements for the first time. With poignant lyrics addressing topics like climate change and media bias, "Commercial Break" stands out as a bold and impassioned statement that resonates with audiences seeking music with a message.
Prem Byrne says: All blues music is pretty much the same song
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Seann Medicina - Given
GIVEN is Seann Medicina's first single from his upcoming LP Bad Selfie. Being inspired by overcoming life's challenges, Given steps into a bigger sound and broader scope than his previous works. The song acknowledges life's difficulties and tired assumptions and how they can trap us. When we accept them with gratitude, we can break free of solemnity and obscurity and step into a joyful life.
Orchestral yet humble, brazen yet measured, a new expansive sound that is self-defining.
Sean Medicina says: The future is acoustic!
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