Milk! Records co-founder Jen Cloher has shared “My Witch,” a track off from their forthcoming album I Am The River, The River Is Me which drops on March 3 via Milk! Records/Marathon Artists.

I Am The River, The River Is Me was Recorded between Aotearoa (NZ) and Naarm (Melbourne) with producers Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Marlon Williams), Anika Ostendorf (Hachiku) and Cloher’s longtime drummer Jen Sholakis; the album brings in trailblazing artists including Emma Donovan (Gumbaynggirr, Yamatji), Kylie Auldist, Liz Stringer, Te Kaahu (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Tīpā), Ruby Solly (Kai Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) and members of the Naarm-based Kapa Haka, Te Hononga o ngā Iwi. The entire record feels communal — a celebration not just of Cloher, but of the rich, life-filled communities that surround them.

These are fiercely political songs that never feel heavy: They are energetic and full-blooded, alive with the knowledge that to simply exist — to scream and laugh and sing and make art — is as much a form of resistance as to fight.

Finding yourself, finding your home, is an unruly, never-ending process; I Am The River, The River Is Me is not a perfect self-portrait, and it possesses no universal truth about what it means to be Māori, or to be wahine toa (a strong woman), or to be takatāpui, or even to be Jen Cloher. Instead, it captures something else — a picture of humanity and community as a gorgeous, unfathomable mess. The joy of life, Cloher seems to say, is in forgiving your moments of weakness with grace, and embracing the parts of you that are unfinished. On “Aroha Mai, Aroha Atu”, they put it simply, and perfectly: “I may have come late, but better late than never.”

Jen Cloher
I Am The River, The River Is Me
track list

1. Mana Takatāpui
2. Harakeke
3. My Witch
4. Being Human
5. I Am The River, The River Is Me
6. Protest Song
7. The Wild
8. Aroha Mai, Aroha Atu
9. He Toka-Tu-Moana
10. I Am Coming Home

Jen Cloher 2023 Tour Dates

June 7- Deaf Institute, Manchester UK
June 8 – Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds UK
June 9 – The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle UK
June 10 – Stereo, Glasgow UK
June 11 – The Hare & Hounds, Birmingham UK
June 13 – Jazz Café, London UK
June 14 – Louisiana, Bristol UK
June 15 – Green Door Store, Brighton UK
June 16 – Witfloof Bar Botanique, Brussels BE
June 17 – EKKO, Utrecht NL
June 18 – Rotown, Rotterdam NL
June 20 – Supersonic, Paris FR
June 22 – Molotow Skybar, Hamburg DE
June 23 – Privatclub, Berlin DE

Pre-order I Am The River, The River Is Me by Jen Cloher HERE