Just checked my email to find 1 from Camera Obscura advertising this new Sharon Kraus project
"Hi folks,
Welcome to our first release for 2008. We bring you new psych-folk from
Sharron Kraus and Ex-Reverie member Gillian Chadwick. Eight songs
influenced in greater or lesser part by Mellow Candle, Trees and
Jefferson
Airplane and coming out like "gypsies in Bohemia, smoking opium and
drinking ginger tea". Luminously Pagan: a soundtrack to Bergman's "The
Virgin Spring" rather than "The Wicker Man". Read on...
Artist: Rusalnaia
Title: Rusalnaia
Cat No: CAM082CD, 8 tracks, 38:18 mins approx
About the release:
Rusalnaia is about honouring (some would say placating) the Rusalki -
mischievous water nymphs capable of tickling victims to death - with
song,
dance, tree-decorating and wreath-making. Rusalnaia is what happened
when
Sharron Kraus and Gillian Chadwick, then neighbours in Fishtown,
Philadelphia, became friends and decided to honour the Rusalki in each
other! The two, coming from very different musical backgrounds, made
journeys into each other's terrain until it was no longer clear what
the
boundaries were. In the collaborative process they became as close as
sisters and found their way to the shared musical aesthetic that is
Rusalnaia.
Rusalnaia's album was recorded at Hexham Head Studios in Philadelphia,
engineered by Greg Weeks (Espers, The Valerie Project) in two sessions
through 2007 that corresponded with Sharron's extended visits to the
country. Weeks helped capture the duo's organic and sometimes unusual
instrumentation, from dulcimer and guitar to pennywhistles and goat's
nail
shakers, and contributed his own accents to a few tracks: acid Les Paul
leads and vintage 70's synths. Eight tracks of haunting, ritualistic,
magical pagan-folk were the result, varying from the darkly
processional
tale of dispossession "Shifting Sands", though the Comus-like
ceremonies of
the title track to the extended forest-folk trance of the concluding
"Wild
Summer".
Sharron Kraus is a singer/musician/songwriter who creates music rooted
in
the folk traditions of England and Appalachia. Her first two solo
albums
were released on Camera Obscura to critical acclaim and her third will
be
released on Durtro on March 10, 2008. She has worked with The Iditarod,
Fursaxa, Meg Baird and Helena Espvall, and her most recent release was
Right Wantonly A-Mumming, a collection of seasonal songs recorded with
an
eight-strong host of traditional English folk singers and musicians
including Jon Boden, John Spiers, Ian Woods and Fay Hield.
Gillian Chadwick is the creative force behind Ex Reverie, whose debut
glam-rock full-length, The Door into Summer, was released by Language
of
Stone (an imprint of Drag City) on Jan 22, 2008 in the US. In addition
to
Rusalnaia and Ex Reverie, she also plays lead guitar in the
Philadelphia-based dance-prog outfit Golden Ball, and is one-half of
the
Black Sabbath-tinged duo Woodwose."
so I checked the Camera Obscura site which had this up
Rusalnaia CD Out Now! New psych-folk collaboration between Sharron Kraus and Ex-Reverie member Gillian Chadwick. Eight songs influenced in greater or lesser part by Mellow Candle, Trees and Jefferson Airplane and coming out like "gypsies in Bohemia, smoking opium and drinking ginger tea". Luminously Pagan: a soundtrack to Bergman's "The Virgin Spring" rather than "The Wicker Man". Available for early-bird mail order using the main ordering page here (or use the button to the right on this page). Detailed information here. Links to MP3s here. (24 Aug 07).
Unfortunately I can't get sound through this borrowed computer tower, meaning I haven't been able to check this out myself.
Sharron's other work is good enough for me to want to reccommend this though
Stevo
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