Taryn Leia Prescott's second release 'Young And Free' is a refreshing breeze on a warm July afternoon. Contagious melodies, tightly-crafted rhyming couplets and some pleasingly quirky instrumentation all combine with delightful effect in this catchy summer EP.

If previous release 'Songs of the Bride' was a meditation on marriage, then these five songs take the exploration of those themes of love and longing in a fresh direction. Still drawing inspiration from the twists and turns of her relationship with teenage-sweetheart and now-husband Peter, Taryn here casts a nostalgic eye back to the years before marriage, and the resulting collection of songs is an unabashedly enjoyable tribute to young love.

Opening track 'I Am Here' claims that "there have been days when my tale seemed a lazy man's poem without rhythm or rhyme", but the songs presented here are far from committing the crime of poetic laxity. Rather, the carefully crafted lyrics reward repeated listening and reveal an endearingly whimsical set of images. Take for example the confession in 'All Your Time For Me' that singing "love songs in the rain//... fills the ocean in my soul//with the downpour in my brain".

But neither can Taryn be accused of being more a writer of poems than a real musician. She clearly has a gift for writing a memorable tune but also manages to avoid the pitfall of same-ishness that the songs of so many aspiring artists fall into. From the opening track's doo-wop backing chorus to the melancholic violins which close the EP, there is a wide and wonderful variety of influences here on display.

The 'Young and Free' EP is being released in celebration of the first anniversary of Taryn's marriage. It will be available for free download from her official website www.tarynleiaprescott.com, together with all of her other recordings. Why such generosity? Because, as Taryn muses on her blog, "the best things in life are free" -- or better, she suggests, "the best things in life are gifts".

Young And Free EP

Opening track of the upcoming 'Young And Free' EP (release date: 31 July)

I Am Here

All Your Time For Me

Thought Train

Waiting Is What I Do

Meant To Be

Taryn Leia Prescott is an unsigned indie singer-songwriter. With her quirky lo-fi instrumentation, defiantly heart-felt lyrics, and biblical themes, her music stands in the vein of indie folk artists such as Mumford & Sons, Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, Brooke Fraser and Jon Foreman.

Taryn grew up in South India, before studying English Literature in Delhi. She now lives in Cambridge where she is married to Peter, whom she has known since age thirteen. In an era when many in the music industry are worried about the effects of file-sharing and unpaid downloads, Taryn is notable for making all of her music available for free as a gift.

Taryn began writing songs when she was about 7, sang her first concert as a backing vocalist with her father's rock band when she was 11, and started teaching herself the guitar and taking piano classes when she was 12. But it wasn't until 2011 that she began recording her own music. Songs of the Bride, Taryn’s first release, was recorded in the week of Prince William’s Royal Wedding and came out of her own experience of marriage. But Taryn says the album is “less about either of these love stories than about the cosmic love story of a divine Bridegroom who paid the highest price to win back a wayward bride”.

Her second release, the Young and Free EP, takes the exploration of those themes of love and longing in a fresh direction. Still drawing inspiration from the twists and turns of her relationship with teenage-sweetheart and now-husband Peter, Taryn here casts a nostalgic eye back to the years before marriage, and the resulting collection of songs is an unabashedly enjoyable tribute to young love.

The Micah Pact EP is the third and final instalment in her trilogy of 2011 releases. Taryn says that she wrote these songs "in an attempt to grapple with suffering, both my own and others’". And in them she deals with some quite weighty themes: divorce, fatherlessness, loneliness, broken families, disease, poverty, untimely death. The name of the EP, 'The Micah Pact', is a double entendre. It names her younger brother Micah and the orphans at the PACT (Project for AIDS Care & Training) Hospice in Chennai, to whom the songs are dedicated, while also standing as a resolution -- a pact with God, if you like -- to live out the challenge of the biblical prophet Micah: "to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God". 