Alana Markel keeps it spare on the new single Not Likely

Alana Markel has released Not Likely, and it is characteristically quiet. The New York musician works in a minimalist frame, and this single holds to it, building an atmosphere out of pointillist electronics rather than any conventional arrangement.

Markel's catalogue is slim by design. Last year's EP I Love You is the largest piece of it, and it has since passed half a million streams, which is a substantial number for a release built on restraint and empathetic writing rather than anything obviously commercial.

Not Likely is an understated return rather than a reset. The song leans on a hazy, perfume-like quality that overpowers by accumulation, with the electronics placed carefully enough that a listener notices the space between them as much as the sounds themselves.

She has also issued a second version. Not Likely 2 strips the arrangement back to piano and vocals, which is less a remix than a different reading of the same material, and it lets the writing carry the song without the production around it.

The release follows a recent run supporting mark william lewis, the kind of booking that puts a small catalogue in front of an audience that arrived for someone else. For an artist working at this scale, live support slots do more than a promotional cycle would.

Not Likely is out now. It positions Markel in the quieter corner of indie songwriting, where the arrangement is the argument, and the single sits alongside the week's other releases on the release calendar.