Me Lost Me

The project of multi-disciplinary artist Jayne Dent, Me Lost Me unites tradition and technology by combining the storytelling of British folk with experimental electronics. Her juxtaposition of found sounds, loops, and timeless-sounding vocals and melodies heightens the connections between past and present within her music, as do the centuries-old songs she includes along with her own material, as on her 2018 debut album, Arcana. Me Lost Me's music became more conceptual with the post-apocalyptic vignettes of 2020's The Good Noise, the alternate realities of 2023's video game-inspired RPG, and the reflections on creativity of 2025's This Material Moment, all of which found Me Lost Me taking folk traditions into the future.Dent's passion for folk music started early: Her father played instruments such as the concertina, and he and her mother took her to local folk shows and festivals. While growing up, she performed folk dances and sang in choirs. By the time she was a teen, Dent's musical taste expanded to include emo and metal as well as the artier side of indie with artists such as Owen Pallett and Tune-Yards. Following her move to Newcastle to study fine art, Dent explored electronic and experimental music. Her discovery of Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, and Pauline Oliveros' work and her time with the experimental vocal group Noize Choir led her to combine her folk background with her passion for technology and unconventional perspectives within her own music. She dubbed her project Me Lost Me and recorded January 2017's Demo/n, an EP's worth of atmospheric demos that featured electronic textures courtesy of an Octoloop and a small choir of vocalists accompanying Dent. She built on this approach for Me Lost Me's official debut album, November 2018's Arcana. Crowdfunded by Dent, the album boasted a hypnotic mix of traditional pieces and original songs composed of her vocals, loop station, and concertina.Along with a lengthy tour of the U.K., in 2019, Me Lost Me issued that May's ecologically minded The Lay of the Land EP. Dent's second full-length, The Good Noise, appeared in November 2020. Another crowdfunded release, it wove field recordings from the Pyrenees Mountains and the Newcastle Town Moor with moody explorations of the dangers of capitalism and nostalgia. Dent followed The Good Noise's critical acclaim with a residency at the music venue and education center Sage Gateshead. While she was there, she created the songs that would become Me Lost Me's October 2021 EP The Circle Dance. Dent's first release to feature clarinetist Faye MacCalman and double bassist John Pope, it evoked the nearby coasts of Blast Beach. A remix EP featuring reworkings of The Circle Dance's songs by Jen Mac, Jennifer Walton, and others appeared the following April. That year, Me Lost Me's live shows included a performance at the 2022 BBC Proms. Me Lost Me rang in 2023 with the January single "A Painting of the Wind," then returned that July with the album RPG. Inspired by the imaginary landscapes of video games and paintings, and by how stories and technology connect, Dent, MacCalman, and John Pope recorded the album's exploratory songs with Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs' Sam Grant. For Me Lost Me's fourth album, Dent drew on the automatic writing techniques she developed at a workshop with Julia Holter and penned some of her most personal and emotional songs yet. Working with Grant, Pope, MacCalman, and Grant's bandmate Ewan Mackenzie, Dent recorded the meditations on physicality and interpretation for June 2025's This Material Moment at Newcastle's Blank Studios.
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