Set in a town that perpetually runs at full speed, J. Allen's 'Wonder City' builds slowly and focuses closely on single moments, enrapturing the listener with large scale washes of melody as it deconstructs a profound loneliness. His heartbreaking bedroom epics observe New York City from just outside of its whirlwind.  His impressionistic arrangements use the city's hums and whooshes as a soundscape on which he layers songs of solitude and reflection, dreams and distraction.

J. Allen is the reclusive songwriter and founding member of Brooklyn's spacey folk outfit Meanwhiles.  His first solo release, 'Wonder City', is a true 'solo' record on which he writes, plays, and sings all of the parts himself. He captures the street noise and subway rumble 'on location' with film production equipment. In an affecting combination of sound design and intimate performance each track blends together recordings from different sonic spaces, resulting in a cinematic landscape of a song. A verse might take place on a rainy street...a chorus in a quiet bedroom.

In his time with Meanwhiles, J. Allen and his brother Todd recorded 2 full length records, 2 eps and travelled across the US and Europe, sharing stages with the likes of Martha Wainwright and Dean Warerham. Their debut album, 'The Nights Rewind' features Wainwright singing harmony vocal with Allen and was produced alongside Alan Weatherhead (Sparklehorse, Mary Timony). In late 2006 it was released by Decoder Records in Germany and the band began touring in earnest. Meanwhiles released their second LP, 'Slow Motion Summer' in 2009 on which Weatherhead again lent some pedal steel and orchestral samples to the mix, as he had for 'The Nights Rewind'. The London songwriter Nadine Khouri also made a guest appearance adding a haunting vocal on Allen's 'Dreams from the Underground'.

Allen is currently finishing up the final mixing on 'Wonder City' and video post production for the single 'Afterglow', both to be released early next year coinciding with a European tour.