21 year-old Alessi Laurent-Marke, who performs with a rotating line-up under the moniker Alessi’s Ark, has come a long way in a short time. Having signed with a record label just as she turned 17, Alessi was nothing if not precocious; however, listening to this year’s Time Travel, all thoughts of her youth slip away, outshone by a confident and beautiful set of songs that more than justify their creator’s early success.

Madeleine Morley

Currently playing solo on tour in the US, Alessi remains endearingly humble: although by now an experienced performer, she admits that, “you never know how a show will be; although I have done quite a bit of touring, there are always nerves and a feeling of the unknown, like it’s happening for the first time every night.” Although she refers to the “routine you slip into” on tour, she still shows some excitement about the exploration it brings: not yet travelling in a plush bus, taking trains becomes “ a very simple way of getting around and a different way of seeing the country.”

Time Travel seems to have marked many such transitions for Alessi; she seems enthused about her “lovely and very supportive” new label Bella Union, which also brought with it a different way of recording. “This time I didn’t work with a producer, but instead closely with two engineers in the two studios I recorded in. It was a different way of working, and more direct. I had a very special time working with Mike Mogis [famed for ongoing involvement with Bright Eyes] on the first album and it was nice to try working in a different way too.”

This more hands-on approach to recording has resulted in a more mature record in its increased honesty and emotional frankness. The title track contains the lyric, “now I can time travel just lying in bed,” which provides insight into one of the driving forces of Alessi’s music: escapism. “Music can be the very best company and that is all I hope that my music is for others. Books are very special too but I don’t travel to any realm like the one I step into when listening to or playing music.”

Madeleine Morley

This sense of inclusivity in her musical world is a common thread throughout all of Alessi’s work, even from the image of the her “Ark,” the line-up of which “ebbs and flows.” This ethos even extends to the medium through which online orders of Time Travel are delivered: in a charming bag hand-knitted by members of the Ark. What motivates this kind of inclusive gesture? “There is nothing like human contact and placing the music in something handmade hopefully feels a bit like meeting each other and my saying thank you for giving the songs a listen.”

Music as something beautiful to share has always been a passion for Alessi, starting as she did a fanzine called ‘Brain Bulletin’ at 14, filled with “drawings, gig reviews, a few short stories and recommendations of things I wanted to share.” There is something charmingly personal and DIY about this as a first foray into the musical world, a feeling Alessi seems to have maintained; although admitting “there is nothing like the tangible side of a zine and holding something that another has made in our hands,” she still shares recommendations in a similar way on the ‘Brain Bulletin’ section of her website.

Where’s next for Alessi? “After this tour, there’ll be a break from playing for a little while before plans for the new year and next album come together. I feel like I’m on the look out for inspiration. I hear looking within is important too though.”

Wherever she chooses to look, it’s certain to result in an interesting and beautiful venture. Indeed, with her heartfelt, almost handmade approach to songcraft and playing music, Alessi is providing more than enough inspiration for others from within herself.