Runo Plum Finds Clarity in the Fragments on her Debut LP 'patching' and Drops Lead Track 'Sickness'

The lead track on patching is 'Sickness' opening with a restless guitar pattern, and Runo Plum’s voice steps in like it was already mid-thought. It’s conversational, almost casual, but the words don’t slide past they catch. The song is about cycles you can’t shake: the body falling ill, the mind looping back to the same doubts, the small dailies of feeling worn down.

This is where the debut LP begins. Out November 14 via Winspear, patching pulls seven fragments of that kind of life together and leaves the seams visible.

Runo recorded the album in a cabin in Vermont with her partner, instrumentalist Noa Francis, and co-producer Lutalo. Two weeks in the quiet, layering songs one by one. The centenarian guitar at the center of it carries the record’s tone: worn, unpolished, steady. There’s no sense of chasing perfection. Instead, the songs feel lived-in, like you’re hearing them in the moment they were captured.

The material comes from a period of repair. A breakup, the anxiety that followed, the slow process of finding footing again. 'Box at the Door' places you in one scene coming home to find a package of old belongings from an ex. The song doesn’t resolve. It ends the way the memory does: abruptly, without closure. 'Hypochondria' drifts the same way, halting mid-phrase. These aren’t polished narratives. They’re snapshots.

Still, there’s light. 'Slow Spin' rises out of the grey, brushed drums and Francis’s harmonies carrying Runo’s voice higher than it’s been all record. She sings about falling asleep with the window open, letting the night air in. It’s not framed as hope, but it feels like it.

Runo has been writing and sharing music for years, slowly, mostly on her own. Those early songs, released quietly during the pandemic, drew in listeners one by one. Soon she was on support slots for Angel Olsen, Searows, and Hovvdy. This fall, she’ll play Pitchfork London and Paris. That gradual build matters it means patching doesn’t sound like a debut engineered to announce her. It sounds like a natural extension of what she’s already been making.

What sets the record apart is her restraint. She doesn’t over-explain, doesn’t inflate the stakes. She notices, records, and lets it stand. The steadiness in her delivery keeps even the heaviest moments from slipping into melodrama. That restraint makes space for the listener to step in, to feel the weight without being told how.

The title, patching, feels accurate. The songs aren’t polished statements. They’re fragments held together just enough, carrying both the damage and the repair. Runo calls it her healing process in real time, and you can hear that: the half-laughs left in the background, the small imperfections left unedited.

When 'Sickness' first played, it felt like an opening line in the middle of a conversation. By the time the album closes, nothing has been neatly tied off, but there’s a shift. A sense that slowing down long enough to notice is its own kind of forward motion.

patching arrives November 14.

Tour Dates

1/11 - Amsterdam, NL @ London Calling Festival

2/11 - Berlin, DE @ Neue Zukunft

3/11 - Hamburg, DE @ Aalhaus

5/11 - Ghent, BE @ Big Next (Trefpunt)

6/11 - Luxembourg, LU @ Rotondes

7/11 - Paris, FR @ Pitchfork Paris

8/11 - London, UK @ Pitchfork London

10/11 - Bristol, UK @ Thekla

11/11 - London, UK @ Moth Club

12/11 - Brighton, UK @ Dust

14/11 - Sheffield, UK @ Hallamshire Hotel

15/11 - Leeds, UK @ Live at Leeds