Mild summers, coolish winters, down there in Dunedin, New Zealand, were the oceanic climate storms around. Here she writes her songs, here she listens to the wind, catches sea breezes. She is Maxine Funke, singer/songwriter, emotional poet. She used to play in local bands. Then she launched a solo career. Five albums so far. On labels like Feeding Tube Records, A Colourful Storm and Warp’s subdivision Disciples. She is also part of Annie A, a new collaboration between her, Time is Away, Félicia Atkinson, and Christina Petrie.

 

Now she gets Kashual, absolutely without Plastik. Chamber pop, folky, minimal maximal, scoring with a varied melodic voice, piano melodies, environmental recordings, weeping organs, stary sounds. Sometimes the sun runs in, shading light on a charismatic melancholy veiled in cosmic beauty. Sunday music, for those blue Mondays. Properly the first pop album on Kashual Plastik. Heart-warming, so like feeling of being in a room with Maxine Funke, when she plays her music. On the piano. Singing stories about her life and its mysteries. Travelling deep into the songs, taking us in, to end of each melody. Autumn can come. Timeless Town will give us home.