In the broadest of daylights, Marta Arpini is feeling all of her feelings – finally. The Italian-born and Amsterdam-based singer-songwriter-composer follows up her 2022 volt-face I Am a Gem with Tender Superpower, an album of deep, personal catharsis and homespun magic that takes the trained jazz vocalist even further into indie folk territory. 
 

In contrast with I Am a Gem’s more intuitive bustle, Tender Superpower is an unmistakable studio record, inspired by the understated wizardry of Blake Mills and Andy Shauf. A collaborative, co-dictatorial effort by Arpini and producer Mark Schilders (Fabrik, Weval), their respective jazz compatriots were brought in one by one this time, each bringing their own to Arpini’s careful and deceptively simple arrangements. In a place of pastel-coloured bliss, her bright and diaristic lyricism, akin to that of Elliot Smith and Adrianne Lenker, finds its footing. 
 

Ever since her Edison-nominated debut album Forest Light (2019), recorded with her eponymous acoustic jazz quintet, Arpini has been straying further and further away from her beginnings. Born in Crema, she studies jazz vocals in Milan, which she further pursues with a master’s degree at the Amsterdam conservatory.