Jenny Gillespie Mason announces new album ‘In The Safety Of The Light’ and shares first single ‘Rungs of Love’
Jenny Gillsepie Mason by Ginger Fier
Jenny Gillespie Mason today announces her forthcoming album In the Safety of the Light, due 12th June via Native Cat Recordings, and shares its first single, ‘Rungs of Love’.
Produced by Noah Georgeson (Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, Bert Jansch, Vashti Bunyan) and recorded at a private studio in Los Angeles, the album marks a profound return to the acoustic folk music Mason first began writing as a teenager - and one of the most personal records of her career.
After more than a decade exploring psychedelic pop, jazz, and electronic textures through her project Sis - most recently as Sis and the Lower Wisdom - Mason turned back toward the acoustic guitar. In the Safety of the Light moves through questions of how to live a spiritual life while remaining fully human, drawing on Mason’s practice as an aspiring yogi, her life as a mother and wife, and her deep engagement with the teachings of Mother Mirra Alfassa. The album was recorded live as an ensemble in spring and fall 2024, allowing the arrangements to breathe and shimmer around Mason’s acoustic guitar, Wurlitzer, and vocals.
Of lead single ‘Rungs of Love,’ Mason explains: “Rungs of Love was inspired by my guru Mother Mirra Alfassa’s descriptions of the rungs of love in a relationship - from selfish love that cares a lot about what you get back, to a love that gives without wanting anything back, to a divine love that serves only God. The song moves between the verses and the chorus from depicting a romantic human relationship, its successes and bumps, to meditating on the relationship I want to have with God.”
Listen to ‘Rings of Love’ here
Download ‘Rungs Of Love’ here
Speaking further on the record, Mason says “In the Safety of the Light is a project that was building in me for quite a few years, but it took meeting Noah Georgeson for it to reach its fulfillment. Working with someone so kind, calm and creative was what was needed for these songs to become fully formed in their true essence. I hadn’t written strictly on an acoustic guitar for many years, and I felt a return to my original inspiration that led me to becoming a musician as a young teenager - just me and a guitar. Songwise, there is material in the album about trying to live as an aspiring yogi while also trying to be a mother and a wife inside of a weird civilization. Most of the lyrics are very simple and taken from my journals; I didn’t really do much adornment of them, as I wanted the communication to be straightforward and accessible despite the more spiritual leaning subject matter.”
The album’s songs range widely in inspiration and terrain. The singles ‘Rungs of Love’ and ‘Medicine of Light’ trace the fragile ladder between earthly love and higher devotion. “Touch Everyone on Earth” unfolds like a dream-prayer; during a long sleepless night in a New York City hotel room, the narrator imagines the Divine Mother answering her plea to heal a traumatised world. ‘Perseus’ explores a past life in the ancient mysteries of Eleusis, while ‘Woman from Nottingham’ recalls a college professor who implored her students to remember the beauty of the Earth just hours after the events of 9/11.
Sonically, the album draws on the pastoral glow of 1970s British folk - with echoes of Catherine Howe and Fairport Convention - while sailing at times into atmospheric sounds inspired by the ambient music of Hiroshi Yoshimura and the more cosmic folk ballads of Beck. Mason and Georgeson had hoped to work together for several years; long inspired by his production work with folk visionaries Bert Jansch and Vashti Bunyan, Mason turned back toward the acoustic guitar of her youth. Within a few months she had written a cycle of songs shaped in part by the spirit of these undersung artists.
In The Safety Of Light drops 12th June via Native Cat Recordings - pre-order here
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