For Laura Veirs, four years between album releases turned out to be a gathering of forces. On Temple Songs, her 14th solo studio album, the acclaimed singer-songwriter returns with an unusually intimate record even by her standards. Intimate because Veirs wrote it, arranged it, produced it, recorded it, and performed nearly every instrument herself.

“I didn’t know if I would write songs again,” Veirs admits of the years between albums. But the silence had its own purpose. During that time, she built a backyard recording studio, married, blended a family with four teenagers, expanded her work as a music teacher, and devoted more energy to painting. What initially looked like a creative detour gradually became something else. “It turns out that period was a gathering phase,” she explains.

The result is Temple Songs, a record born from a commitment to complete artistic independence. Recorded in Veirs’ backyard Temple of Bloom studio, the album finds her taking control of virtually every part of the process, from the first spark of a melody to the final sound. With no conventional studio machinery or record label between her and the songs, the record has the feel of a songwriter doing her thing without anybody looking over her shoulder.

That solitude doesn’t make Temple Songs feel hermetic. Instead, it gives the album an unmistakable sense of discovery. Veirs has spent much of her career exploring the intersection of folk, indie rock, poetry, and natural imagery, but here the creative process itself becomes part of the story. There’s one notable exception to Veirs’ one-woman approach. The currently anonymous Filthy Lucre contributes saxophone to “Pulse,” adding another voice to an album otherwise shaped almost entirely by Veirs’ hands. Once Veirs committed to making the record herself, she says, “it came together very quickly.” Temple Songs captures everything in real time. The return of an artist stepping back into the room, closing the door, and discovering that the songs were still within her.