Flo Morrissey

If her surname evokes, by homonymy, the great hours of British rock, it's to the community of Laurel Canyon, on the other side of the Atlantic, that the frail London singer of Irish origin sets her sights. The folk scene of the late 1960s, driven by Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and The Byrds, is at the heart of this young singer, guitarist and pianist's musical recipe. Encouraged by her eight brothers and sisters, this precociously gifted musician has drawn on this glorious past to create ten bewitching sepia-toned tracks with an old-fashioned charm, which will make up her debut album, due in July 2015. Far from contenting herself with the burning charm of her melancholy voice, she presents rich arrangements, conceived with producer Noah Georgeson (Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom) and timeless lyrics of astonishing maturity. Two years later, she's back with a surprising project: she's teamed up with songwriter Matthew E. White for an album of covers, called Gentlewoman, Rubyman. The album features Leonard Cohen, George Harrison and the Velvet Underground, as well as contemporary artists such as James Black and Frank Ocean, not to mention two French artists: Nino Ferrer and Charlotte Gainsbourg.