Since releasing her sophomore album, Pale Moon Kid, in 2016, a lot has changed for Canadian artist Jenny Berkel. Known predominately as a singer-songwriter, Jenny has begun to garner a literary audience in the course of stepping out as a poet. Outside Music’s vinyl reissue of Pale Moon Kid—with reimagined artwork, printed lyrics, and never before released digital B-sides—comes shortly after the publication of her debut chapbook, Grease Dogs, with Baseline Press.
For Jenny, the re-celebration of Pale Moon Kid comes with revisiting particular moments when the songs came to life, and the realization that her passion for scene-painting in song was the seed of a poetic trajectory that has now begun to bloom. “I didn’t know at the time how much the songs would eventually transport me to certain moments,” says Jenny about the experience of coming back to the album. “I remember the farmhouse outside of London where I wrote ‘Wealth in the Country’ one night, feeling enclosed inside the house and the silence of the country, while outside the land was bursting with autumn harvest… the smell of springtime in France where I wrote ‘Lilac, Lily’… There’s a surprising transporting effect there that I think I’ve become more intentional about in my poems.”
Praised for its emotive storytelling and vivid lyricism, Pale Moon Kid is an album of postcards that serendipitously foreshadows a poetic practice rooted in observation and introspection. Now, with music and writing both central to her artistic identity, Jenny stands out as an all-around storyteller— with an evocative practice that explores the relationship between poetry and song, and hinges powerful narratives on the intricacies of a multifaceted musicality.
For Jenny, the re-celebration of Pale Moon Kid comes with revisiting particular moments when the songs came to life, and the realization that her passion for scene-painting in song was the seed of a poetic trajectory that has now begun to bloom. “I didn’t know at the time how much the songs would eventually transport me to certain moments,” says Jenny about the experience of coming back to the album. “I remember the farmhouse outside of London where I wrote ‘Wealth in the Country’ one night, feeling enclosed inside the house and the silence of the country, while outside the land was bursting with autumn harvest… the smell of springtime in France where I wrote ‘Lilac, Lily’… There’s a surprising transporting effect there that I think I’ve become more intentional about in my poems.”
Praised for its emotive storytelling and vivid lyricism, Pale Moon Kid is an album of postcards that serendipitously foreshadows a poetic practice rooted in observation and introspection. Now, with music and writing both central to her artistic identity, Jenny stands out as an all-around storyteller— with an evocative practice that explores the relationship between poetry and song, and hinges powerful narratives on the intricacies of a multifaceted musicality.