Kevin Bronson on July 30th, 2019

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L.A.-based folk duo Junaco make folk music that feels as if it came from a secluded, shady spot where the mind is uncluttered by the entanglements of modern life. Technology and media, be gone. You too, day job. Let someone sing for you.

Junaco is the work of Pakistani singer-guitarist Shahana Jaffer and drummer Joey LaRosa, a Midwesterner. After LaRosa had worked on some of Jaffer’s solo music, the project began in earnest in a remote mountain town in coastal Northern California, where the duo forged an organic sound based on understated guitar and piano, subtle grooves and the singer’s honeyed vocals.

Last week, Junaco released the EP “Awry,” in which very little is actually awry. “The underlying theme is about coming to terms with experiences and hardships we have faced and finally putting them out there,” Jaffer says. “It’s very healing.” That’s not an oversell; you feel “underneath the willow” as soon as she croons the phrase to open the EP’s final track, “Willow,” and the buoyant “Awake” is the kind of folk song that swirls like tendrils of smoke until it disappears into the atmosphere.

“Awry” was made at Boulevard Recording with Omar Yakar, who has engineered on albums by Local Natives and the War on Drugs, among others. Fans of Bedouine will want to lend an ear.

||| Stream: “Willow” and “Awake”

||| Also: Stream the “Awry” EP in its entirety