Polly Paulusma released her debut ‘Scissors In My Pocket’ on Björk’s label One Little Independent to critical acclaim in 2004, supporting Bob Dylan and Coldplay as the album’s reputation grew.
She subsequently released four studio albums and four sister-albums, scored a film soundtrack, founded a record label (Wild Sound) which has supported the work of nine other indie-folk artists, and produced records by other artists such as Harry Harris, Stylusboy and Mortal Tides. She has completed a literature/musicology PhD on Angela Carter’s folk singing published by Bloomsbury which her fourth album ‘Invisible Music: folk songs that influenced Angela Carter’ renders in musical terms.
Her fifth album ‘The Pivot On Which The World Turns’ (2022) and its sister-album (2023) began developing a new style that incorporated spoken-word and song as one unit, leading to her extraordinary sixth studio album ‘Wildfires’, produced by the legendary Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Laura Marling, Ray Lamontagne), which brings this work to fruition. ‘Wildfires’ was released in February 2025.
Between writing, recording and touring Paulusma teaches songwriting and poetry for Cambridge University where she is a Bye Fellow in English, and songwriting for the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, where she is Associate Professor of Song and Literature.
Press
MOJO ★★★★
“a marvel of subtly nuanced longform art in a world perma-geared towards instant gratification.”
CLASH
“A quite remarkable thing”
“Arguably her masterpiece”
THE GUARDIAN
“[Tiny Little Things is a] beautifully sung jazz pop ballad”
FATEA
“an absolute masterpiece”
“a quite extraordinary listening experience”
“This is a career defining piece of work”
“I think album of the year may already be decided”
FOR FOLKS SAKE
“a work of vision and beauty”
“These songs ring with truths that could only come from experience”