After a three-year hiatus that scattered the Wolter siblings across different continents and projects, Penelope Isles reunite with a new album written quickly in rural Portugal.
Penelope Isles will release their third album, 3, on September 25 via Bella Union. The record follows a long quiet period for the sibling-led group, whose last live shows took place three years ago. In that gap, Lily Wolter stepped away from music and traveled, while Jack Wolter became the live guitarist for CMAT, witnessing her rapid ascent firsthand.
They reconvened in rural Portugal, turning a month-long surfing trip into an intensive writing session. The entire album materialized in a matter of weeks. The speed and setting mark a clear break from past methods, stripping away accumulated layers.
The first single, “Thinking Seat,” previews that shift. It’s more direct than earlier work, with a focused melodic core and a sense of restraint that suggests the time apart tightened rather than loosened the band’s instincts. The track list includes characteristically off-kilter titles like “I Loved You Robert Pattinson” and “You This You Got A Way With Dogs,” while a few song names — “Birthdays,” “Embo,” “Moonwalker” — hint at the collision of memory and place that likely shaped the sessions.
The album is available for preorder now.
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ROMBO Editorial Staff
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