JUNE McDOOM is stepping into album mode with ‘Without You’, the first single from her forthcoming debut LP, Follow the Light.

The New York-based songwriter frames the song around a brief spell of distance from a lover — and lets the arrangement do the heavy lifting. Acoustic guitars, synths, harps and piano drift through the track, with the instruments described as moving with an almost aquatic lift as it builds.

McDoom’s route here is steeped in old-school training and family sound-system lore. She learned her craft through jazz standards before finding her “bread and butter” in folk harmonies, including a cover of the Appalachian ballad ‘Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair’ on her 2023 EP With Strings.

That folk base is also tied to her upbringing: she grew up in a Jamaican household in south Florida where her father built sound systems around the house. Her grandfather, Colin Smith, was a performer and preservationist of mento — the Jamaican folk style that would go on to spawn reggae and dub.

Follow the Light is due out via Jagjaguwar on 16 October, with ‘Without You’ setting the tone: intimate and warm, but with a slightly disembodied, mysterious edge that suggests she’s more interested in atmosphere than straight confessional diary pop.