Folk Singer Kate Koenig Gives Voice to a Very Old Soul in “Young with Ancient Stories”

Fri May 14, 2021
Kate Koenig

It’s the song’s title but it could also be the artist’s bio in four words: “Young with Ancient Stories” is experimental folk singer/songwriter Kate Koenig’s new release.

Plaintive, introspective, and sung from the point of view of the mythological creature Bʌfdɔg (Buff Dog), who’s existed as every person and at every time, “Young with Ancient Stories” is Bʌfdɔg’s soul-baring confession of spiritual disconnection and isolation.

“Bʌfdɔg is singing both as a creature spiritually exhausted from experiencing a sun’s age of lifetimes and as a lost and lonely kid who feels cut off from the world,” explains Koenig.

“Young with Ancient Stories” is the second single and closing track from Koenig’s sophomore album, Etemenanki, released January 31. Every song on Etemenanki is sung either by Bʌfdɔg themselves or from the perspective of individuals whom Bʌfdɔg has embodied. However, this song holds a particularly personal connection for the unique and inventive singer/songwriter. “Out of all of the songs on the album, the narration of this one comes the closest to coming from my own voice,” remarks Koenig.

Kate Koenig Brings New Spirit to a Tiring Season with Release of Sophomore Album, Etemenanki

Fri Feb 19 2021
Kate Koenig Under St. Mark's Theatre Photo Credit Melissa Wu

Brooklyn, NY’s Kate Koenig is a very hungry experimental-folk caterpillar that eats Fleet Foxes’ progressivism and Kate Bush’s iconoclasticism and Jeff Buckley’s zeal and Leonard Cohen’s disenchantment, and is still eating while you read this line. She’s an experimental folk singer/songwriter who is bringing new spirit to a tiring season with her sophomore album Etemenanki.

The new album features 40 minutes of contemplative, cinematic, and inventive compositions, some of which are influenced by Middle Eastern tonalities.

Etemenanki is a concept album that is written from a place of great emotional and spiritual introspection, but at the same time, doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s an aural folktale: Each song is told from the perspective of a mythological creature of Koenig’s own invention that goes by the tongue-in-cheek name of Bʌfdɔg (pronounced “Buff Dog”). The creature has existed at every time there has been and ever shall be, and as every person who has been and ever shall be. Some songs are sung by Bʌfdɔg themselves, while others are sung from the perspective of individuals whom Bʌfdɔg has embodied.