*200 copies limited edition* Pefkin is the alter ego of Gayle Brogan, a Sheffield-based creator of slowly-unfolding, ritualistic hymnals that draw deeply on landscape, nature, and the histories that bind them. Her sound is built from a mesmerising layering of voice, viola, analogue synths, harmonium, melodica, zither and field recordings manipulated with a kaleidoscopic array of effects. Hereby she blurs the boundaries between folk, psychedelia, and experimental music. Over the years her work has become increasingly stripped back, revealing a stark and intimate core. With three LPs and a split release with Roxane Métayer on Morc Records, she has become one of the label’s most beloved and familiar artists.
Brogan has performed as Pefkin since the early 2000s, though she’s been a strongholder of the international underground from even before that. She was a founding member of the celebrated retro-futurist psych/electronics duo Electroscope, and ran the influential Boa mailorder, a cornerstone of the international bedroom psychedelia scene. More recently, she has been active in the duo Burd Ellen, while remaining a key figure in the Sheffield experimental community, hosting performances for many of the leading names in the contemporary folk and drone scene.
On her fourth full-length for Morc, Gayle Brogan raises the bar once more. The familiar Pefkin elements are present: melodies that unfold patiently and graciously, with textures so vivid they feel almost tangible. Across six tracks, around forty minutes in total, the album is more focused than ever, with instruments and sounds flowing seamlessly into one another, leaving ample space for each melody to breathe.
Nature has always been a central part in Pefkin’s music, and on Unfurling she captures all the elements. The record follows the transformations of the land from winter into spring — air, light, temperature, soil — each rendered in sound. The B-side’s “My Breath the Sea” evokes the Irish saints who once crossed to Scotland by coracle, living as hermits in beehive cells on remote islands, drawn by the same fascination with the western coast that inspires Brogan today. With Unfurling, Pefkin creates her own microclimate, an environment both intimate and expansive. She’s not a hermit though: listeners are invited into her latest habitat: Unfurling. Be welcome.
