Penelope Trappes

Summoning the great ghosts of vintage 4AD and Kranky, the Australian singer and producer makes inky dream pop that’s as heavy and welcoming as a weighted blanket – Philip Sherburne (Pitchfork)

Penelope Trappes marks her return to Australia after seven years abroad in London.

The release of Penelope Three in 2021 marked the final instalment of Penelope Trappes’ quietly mesmerising and critically acclaimed trilogy. A UK-based Australian-born vocalist, musician, and ethereal soundscaper, Penelope spent 2016 writing and recording Penelope One in a small piano studio in East London. Composed of mostly percussion-less, reverb-heavy, haunting atmospherics with dystopian themes, the LP was released via Optimo Music in 2017.

Penelope signed to the stellar Houndstooth label and released her sophomore LP Penelope Two in 2018, a minimalist, an ethereal album built around field recordings, meditations, guitars, piano and reverb, which deals with mortality, predestination and empathy.

2019 saw the release of Penelope Redeux consisting of reworks of songs from Penelope Two by uncompromising artists including Cosey Fanni Tutti, Mogwai, Félicia Atkinson and Nik Colk Void. Penelope Three, the final epigenetic-themed instalment of the trilogy, was released in May 2021 with a long string of UK tour dates, culminating in a live performance with the London Contemporary Orchestra at London’s Southbank Centre. Mother’s Blood, a vocal-free meditative reinterpretation of Penelope Three was released on cassette at the end of that year. 

Don’t miss her debut homecoming shows in Sydney this June at Phoenix Central Park.