BY JOANNA C. VALENTE

Music brings people together. Communities are created and fostered through melodies, which is why it’s important to promote excellent work by musicians both popular and obscure from all over the world. As a music lover myself, I’m always searching for new music (regardless of when it was released).

Here are three of my picks for this week:

The Twilight Sad - “Vtr”

The Scottish band released a new song after their last album in 2014. It’s a dark synth dream.

Josephine Foster - Faithful Fairy Harmony

Foster, a delightful folk musician, released an ethereal, meditative album full of some of the most beautiful songs you’ve ever heard. My favorite: “The Virgin of the Snow”

Planningtorock - Powerhouse

Planningtorock, which is Jam Roston’s experimental band, released a new album this year that is an exploration on modernity, gender, spirituality and love. My favorite: “Somethings More Painful Than Others.”

Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. They are the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (ELJ Publications, 2016) & Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016), and is the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM, 2017). They received their MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Joanna is the founder of Yes, Poetry and the managing editor for Civil Coping Mechanisms and Luna Luna Magazine. Some of their writing has appeared in Prelude, BUST, Spork Press, The Feminist Wire, and elsewhere. Joanna also leads workshops at Brooklyn Poets. joannavalente.com / Twitter: @joannasaid / IG: joannacvalente