Weird, lovely folk/improv from Psychedelphia...recommended if you're into Bardo Pond, Espers, Sharron Kraus, Theo Angell or Spires that in the Sunset Rise.
Fursaxa Alone in the Dark Wood (ATP Recordings) US release date: 1 May 2007 UK release date: 23 April 2007 by Jennifer Kelly
Dark madrigals for the 21st century Fursaxa's fifth full-length begins with a vertiginous howl, it's lead-off track "Intro" a sort of dopplered drop hurtling the listener through altered voice and sound. It only lasts 16 seconds, but it's enough to transport you into a wholly separate space, which is where you'll stay for the duration of this haunted medieval abbey of an album. These 13 compositions slip dreamily, one into the other, their spidery taut guitars melting into lush atmospheric plain song, weird pennywhistles winding into arabesques of organ overtones. There's hardly a distinguishable word on the album, yet the message is unmistakeable. This is music as timeless, shapeless and all-embracing as life itself. If you breathe it, you'll get dizzy.
Fursaxa is, of course, the Philadelphian free folk artist Tara Burke. She spans the full range of the Terrastock folk/rock/improv universe, having collaborated with both Acid Mothers Temple and Meg Baird. She works, apparently, alone here. No other artists are credited in the liner notes. Still there is nothing solitary, or terse or personal about these songs. They unfold luxuriously, Burke's voice layered upon itself in ghostly medieval madrigals, her mad staccato guitar strums backed by bangs and clatter and rolls of percussion. (The rest here: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/42185/fursaxa-alone-in-the-dark-wood/)
An MP3, but not, unfortunately, from the current album. The track is called "Japonica" http://www.fursaxa.net/mp3s/japon.mp3
