Fursaxa | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Tara Burke |
Also known as | Fursaxa |
Born | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Origin | United States |
Genres | Experimental, psychedelic folk, drone |
Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, musician |
Years active | 2000–present |
Labels | Eclipse Records, Ecstatic Peace! Records, ATP Records, Time-Lag Records, Jewelled Antler, Mt. St. Mtn., Last Visible Dog, Foxglove, Acid Mothers Temple |
Fursaxa is a United States-based psychedelic folk or freak folk project led by Tara Burke of Pennsylvania. Her home-recordings feature acoustic guitar, simple Casio electronic keyboards, accordion, dulcimer and her heavily overdubbed vocals on a 4-track recorder.
She has been making music since childhood. Her music has been compared to Nico's solo work and is often categorized among New Weird America artists. The writings of Medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen, Vladimir Nabokov, and Mircea Eliade have influenced the lyrics and mood of her work. Her musical influences include: World music, Krautrock, film soundtracks, Minimalism, Medieval and Renaissance music. She has recorded with numerous bands as a guest or side-project, including Acid Mothers Temple, fellow Philadelphians Bardo Pond, Iditarod, Scorces, The Valerie Project, and Six Organs of Admittance. Fursaxa is currently signed to the London-based ATP Recordings label. Live performances in 2010 saw Fursaxa expand to a trio, with Burke backed by harpist Mary Lattimore and cellist Helena Espvall, culminating in an appearance at the ATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York. Burke and Espvall also record and perform together as a duo under the name Anahita.
Studio albums
Singles, EPs, and limited releases
Self Released (Sylph) Recordings
With Helena Espvall, as Anahita
With Sharron Kraus, as Tau Emerald
Kevin Drumm is an experimental musician based in Chicago, United States.
Charalambides is an avant garde musical group originally from Houston, Texas, United States and lately of Austin, Texas. Formed in 1991 by Tom Carter, Christina Carter and Kyle Silfer, they have followed in the footsteps of other Texas psychedelic music artists such as the 13th Floor Elevators, and Red Crayola. Later members include Jason Bill and Heather Leigh Murray, but the band has long considered itself primarily a duo between Tom and Christina Carter.
Bardo Pond are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1991, and who are currently signed to London-based label Fire Records. The current members are Michael Gibbons (guitar), John Gibbons (guitar), Isobel Sollenberger, Clint Takeda and Jason Kourkounis (drums). Bardo Pond's music is often classified as space rock, acid rock, post-rock, shoegazing, noise or psychedelic rock. Some Bardo Pond album titles have been derived from the names of esoteric psychedelic substances. Their sound has been likened to Pink Floyd, Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine amongst others.
Richard Youngs is an English musician based in Glasgow since the early 1990s. His catalogue of solo and collaborative work formally begins with Advent, first issued in 1990. He plays many instruments, most commonly choosing the guitar, but he has been known to use other instruments including the shakuhachi, accordion, theremin, dulcimer, a home-made synthesizer and even a motorway bridge. He also released an album which was entirely a cappella.
Ghost was an experimental rock group formed in Tokyo, Japan, in 1984.
Vibracathedral Orchestra is an England-based drone ensemble that has been active since 1998.
Thanksgiving and Adrian Orange & Her Band are the names under which Portland, Oregon singer/songwriter Adrian Orange performs. First adopting the "Thanksgiving" moniker around 1999–2000, Orange played experimental folk music, often accompanying himself on guitar and self-recording his albums using analog equipment. While Thanksgiving is essentially a solo act, Orange often collaborates with other musicians in his recordings and performances.
Steven R. Smith is an American musician, instrument-builder, and printmaker often associated with the Jewelled Antler collective. Born in Fullerton, California and based in San Francisco and, more recently, Los Angeles, he has been musically active since the mid-1990s. His main instrument is guitar, both acoustic and electric, although other instruments, including the hurdy-gurdy, bouzouki, fretted spike fiddles, and assorted ethnic instruments, have been incorporated into his work.
John Kiran Fernandes is an American multi-instrumentalist musician.
Espers was an American psychedelic folk band from Philadelphia, United States, that was part of the emerging indie folk scene. They formed in 2002 as a trio of singer-songwriter Greg Weeks, Meg Baird and Brooke Sietinsons but later expanded to a sextet including Otto Hauser, Helena Espvall and Chris Smith. Their music is reminiscent of late-sixties British folk as well as many contemporary folk acts. Most of the band's members have also featured on recordings by a number of other folk artists such as Nick Castro and Vashti Bunyan and as a result have become an important part of the psychedelic folk revival.
Time-Lag Records is an independent record label based in Portland, Maine.
Wooden Wand is the stage name of singer-songwriter James Jackson Toth, who has recorded under his given name as well as the name WAND. The style of music recorded by Toth and his many incarnations has drawn on a variety of both conventional and experimental folk and rock influences, including psychedelic folk, freak folk and indie. Though he was a significant player in the New Weird America trend of the early to mid-2000s along with Devendra Banhart, Akron/Family, Joanna Newsom, and collaborators The Vanishing Voice, Toth has been difficult to pigeonhole in one genre; recent releases have been identified as acid folk, free jazz, outlaw country, and country-tinged rock. Toth has appeared on labels including Kill Rock Stars, Ecstatic Peace!, Rykodisc, and Young God.
James Blackshaw is an English, Hastings-based folk fingerstyle guitarist and pianist. Blackshaw primarily plays an acoustic 12 string guitar and has been compared to Bert Jansch, Robbie Basho, John Fahey, Jack Rose, and Leo Kottke. He has released albums on the labels Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Barl Fire Recordings, Static Caravan, Digitalis Industries, Important Records, Tompkins Square, and Young God Records.
Rick Tomlinson is an English, Bolton based musician, best known for one of his projects, Voice of the Seven Woods, with Chris Walmsley and Pete Hedley. Tomlinson is most commonly associated with the Manchester alternative music scene, and is regularly associated with the B-Music collective; a Manchester based DJ, music and arts collaboration that includes DJ Andy Votel, Super Furry Animals's frontman Gruff Rhys and various other DJs and artists.
Department of Eagles is an American duo formed in New York in 2000, consisting of Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus.
Natural Snow Buildings is a duo from France, consisting of artists Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte. They play music which can be classified as experimental psychedelic folk with drone elements and ambient influences. Formed in 1998, they have released numerous albums, many of them in extremely limited quantities.
The Valerie Project was a Philadelphia-based psychedelic folk band. Their first (self-titled) album, released in 2007, is intended to serve as an alternate soundtrack to the cult Czech New Wave film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. They have performed live at screenings of the film. The band is led by Espers member Greg Weeks and also includes Brooke Sietinsons and Helena Espvall of Espers, Margaret Wienk, Jesse Sparhawk, and Jim Ayre of Fern Knight, Tara Burke, Mary Lattimore, Jessica Weeks, and Charles Cohen.
Emeralds is an American electronic music trio founded in 2006 by members John Elliott, Steve Hauschildt and Mark McGuire. The band was based in Cleveland, Ohio and then in Portland, Oregon, United States.
Sharron Kraus is an English singer, songwriter and musician with strong ties to the US. Kraus was born in New York but grew up in Leicester, England. She has lived in Philadelphia and collaborated with American musicians, including Meg Baird, Helena Espvall, Christian Kiefer, Tara Burke (Fursaxa), and Gillian Chadwick.
Helena Espvall is a Swedish-American musician noted for her participation in the post-millennial psychedelic folk and free improv scenes. Her primary instruments are cello, guitar and voice.