Sophie's Floorboard: Jon Kohen

This is the solo project of Jon Kohen, a member of Kismet. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, his debut album came out this year titled The Heart Of The Machine. The acoustic/folk aspect of Kismet is present, but with a much darker tone, and a lot of atmospheric electronics to fill in the space behind Jon's delicately haunting vocals. As far as comparisons can go, the Elliott Smith influence is evident, the daint melancholy and acoustic meandering resembles Carissa's Wierd, and the electronica hints could be attributed to Radiohead circa Kid A or In Rainbows (but more as a background atmosphere). Overall, Jon Kohen has crafted four beautiful songs here that envelops the listener in a gentle despair. I highly recommend giving this a try, there is some true talent here. This is an album that grabs your attention and takes you to another place to wallow in the music, both by sympathizing with Jon's loss as well as relating your own. Be sure to give it a listen and support what you can.