Alessi's Ark

Alessi's Ark is the project of singer-songwriter Alessi Laurent-Marke, a London-born artist who grows up in Hammersmith. Born in 1990, she begins making music as a teenager after her mother gives her Graham Nash’s Songs for Beginners. She starts on drums at school at the age of 11, then develops an interest in songwriting through a combination of music, poetry and the stories she writes for her fanzine.

Early work and first releases

While still at school, Laurent-Marke creates the fanzine Brain Bulletin, later continued as a blog on her website. She writes about bands, books and films, and distributes the zine at concerts, through a local record shop and at a launderette on Shepherd’s Bush Road. For a Music GCSE assignment she writes Glendora, which becomes an early step in her songwriting. She leaves school at 16 to pursue music, with her parents’ support and an agreement to return to education if nothing comes of it.

She gains attention through demos posted on Myspace and releases the Bedroom Bound EP on her own independent label, Zooey. The name Alessi's Ark is suggested by her mother to avoid confusion with The Alessi Brothers.

Record deals and albums

After being seen performing by representatives from Heavenly Records and EMI, she signs to EMI on the eve of her 17th birthday. Mike Mogis works with her, and she travels to Nebraska to record her debut album at Mogis and Conor Oberst’s studio in Omaha. Notes From The Treehouse is released in May 2009 and includes full-band versions of songs from Bedroom Bound alongside newer material such as The Dog and Hummingbird. The album also features musicians who influenced her, including Jake Bellows of Neva Dinova and Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes.

In 2010 she leaves Virgin and signs to Bella Union, releasing the EP Soul Proprietor. Her second album, Time Travel, follows in 2011 and is produced by Alessi Laurent-Marke and David Wrench.

Live work and wider activity

After the release of her debut album, she continues to perform live in the UK and supports artists including Robyn Hitchcock, Mariee Sioux, Johnny Flynn, Emilíana Torrini and Cerys Matthews. She also appears at Neil Young’s Hyde Park show in London. In Hammersmith, Riverside Studios hosts Handmade, an exhibition of drawings inspired by her songs, running in late 2009.