Brooklyn-based, Florida-born songwriters Wiley Gaby & Jeffrey Doker set out to carve a space where their seemingly disparate influences could meet, mingle, and ultimately blur genre lines to create beautiful new music. Influenced by classic country storytelling, melancholy pop melodies, and pretty things, the duo formed Goldenchild in the spring of 2014, and will release their debut album, Bridges, this fall.

With a handful of original tunes ready to record, Doker & Gaby tapped rock producer/engineer Mark Ephraim, whose previous credits include work with The New Pornographers, Ed Vallance, & Au Revoir Simone, to name a few. Ephraim’s darker production paired with the songwriters’ country-influenced melodies yielded a haunting, evocative, and more rock-tinged sound.

Joined by a stellar roster of guest players such as Parker Kindred (Antony & The Johnsons, Joan As Policewoman, Jeff Buckley) on drums, Jon Rauhouse (Neko Case) & Ed Kurz (Tatter & Rags) on pedal steel, Caleb Lindskoog (The Silver State, Magmana) on electric guitar, and many others, Ephraim and Goldenchild’s core personnel—Gaby, Doker, guitarist Jeff Mensch, vocalist Kerry Flanagan, and multi-instrumentalist James Power—recorded Bridges throughout north Brooklyn between 2014 and 2015.

On their debut album, Goldenchild merges elements of classic country and ambient soundscapes with a respectable hint of pop sensibility. The result is “gorgeous, cosmic country” that NYC’s Next magazine calls “damn beautiful.”