The indie songwriting project of North Carolina-based artist Canon Pence, Twilark emerges from the crossroads of southern melancholy and gothic folk.

Pence is a self-taught musician whose relationship with the art form has long been private. Raised in a household where music was appreciated but learning to play was actively discouraged, he found his way into bands in high school and college, teaching himself guitar and learning how to write through instinct and repetition. What began as a quiet personal exercise turned into something more urgent, more focused—a way of unburdening. Twilark took shape gradually, without a clear starting point or defined plan. The songs were written over several years, most of them at home, often late at night.

Twilark’s new EP Foxheart features three songs plucked from the Nashville recording session that brought us The Taming Ties Create album, ultimately anointed for inclusion on the EP for their quirky sweet nature. These intimate and introspective songs skew towards the weird side of indie folk, continuing a thread from the album’s closing song “To Tame, To Learn, To Know.”The EP format provides room to explore a more experimental production approach, inspired heavily by the work of Sparklehorse.

The EP’s trio of songs include the title track “Foxheart,” a tricky little song hewn from fragments of ideas sparked and discarded over several months. Thematically, the lyrics reconcile Twilark’s teenage and adult creative yearnings, and the arrangement fittingly references middle-period REM ballads.  

The second song, “My Whirlpool,” mostly heavily references Sparklehorse and has a hypnotic quality, layered with sound but composed with feeling. The lyric “falling into that broken place that I still keep for you” crushes with raw vulnerability.  

The final track “Time and Distance” is a song showcasing Pence’s ability to inject lyrics with the complicated weight of loss.  Beginning with an unassuming guitar and twisting into an ethereal ballad, it leaves the listener both relaxed and disoriented.