Hudson Valley, NY · alternative · indie pop · dream pop

Hannah Cohen

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Sixties-pop scaffolding with the reverb of a much later record — a clear, unhurried voice that makes a small room feel enormous.

Hannah Cohen was born in San Francisco on October 25, 1986, into a family of musicians and booksellers; her father is the jazz drummer Myron Cohen, and her grandfather, W. R. Rodgers, was a poet. She left home as a teenager and moved to New York, where she became something of a muse for the city's art world, posing for photographers and painters including Richard Prince, Terry Richardson, David Salle, Will Cotton and Ryan McGinley, and worked for a time at the Village Vanguard jazz club. She later settled in New York's Hudson Valley.

Her debut album, Child Bride, was produced by Thomas Bartlett, known professionally as Doveman for his keyboard work with the National and Antony and the Johnsons, and released by Bella Union in April 2012. The record drew on a small circle of New York musicians, among them Sam Amidon, Rob Moose, Brad Albetta, Doug Wieselman and Kenny Wollesen, with engineer Patrick Dillett recording the sessions. A second album, Pleasure Boy, followed in March 2015, and a third, Welcome Home, was produced by her partner Sam Owens, who records as Sam Evian, and released in April 2019.

Her songs work with the shapes of sixties pop, simple chord movement, unhurried tempos, clear melodic lines, but sit inside softer, more diffuse production, with reverb and tape warmth doing much of the atmospheric work. The voice stays central, understated and rarely pushed. A fourth album, Earthstar Mountain, was recorded over several years at Flying Cloud, a studio she owns with Owens, and released in March 2025.

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alternativeindie popdream pop