a r t i s t : Tau Emerald
t i t l e : Travellers Two
d a t e : 2008
l a b e l : Important (IMPREC172)
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : Feb/2008
t r a c k s : 11
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 54,6 MB
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Travellers Two is a full length recording from the duo of Tara
Burke (Fursaxa) and Sharron Kraus. Togerther Kraus & Burke
create an ethereal record of dark-folk magic.
Tara Burke and Sharron Kraus were due to travel to Finland
together for a week but missed the flight, so instead they
decided to spend the week recording together and Travellers
Two is the result. The time was spent out in the fields,
visiting burial mounds, and then coming back to Sharron's home
studio to work. They had played previously together and done
some recording but this is the first time an album was
conceived.
Fursaxa is Tara Burke. Formerly a member of the Siltbreeze
band UN, Tara started her Fursaxa project in 1999 after UN
disbanded. After being a long time resident of Philadelphia,
Tara decided to leave the "city of brotherly love" for the
touring life. So from April 2005-April 2006 she toured
extensively throughout the UK, the USA, and Europe with
friends and fellow musicians Jack Rose, Sharron Kraus,
Alexander Tucker, Christina Carter, Marcia Bassett, and the
Spires that in the Sunset rise, to name a few. For her live
performances she uses mostly looped vocals, flutes, and
percussion, a casio keyboard, guitar, and mandolin, in an
attempt to transport her audience into the ethereal realms. On
her forthcoming album Alone in the Dark Wood she employs a
myriad of instruments such as mandolin, guitar, violin, banjo,
balalaika, organ, bells,, flute, percussion, and voice. This
album was recorded and mixed in Finland and Pennsylvania. Tara
has recently been collaborating with several other musicians.
Espers member Helena Espvall and Tara have a duo called
Anahita, and in 2006 released Arcana en Cantos on the Deserted
Village label from Ireland. They are currently working on
their second release. Currently, Fursaxa is playing and
recording her music in the rural hills of Pennsylvania.
Sharron Kraus is a singer/musician/songwriter who creates
music rooted in the folk traditions of England and Appalachia.
Her work is characterized by soil-rich vocals, haunting banjo,
fine acoustic guitar and visionary wordcraft. Her songs are
populated by a carnival array of fatally charismatic
characters, telling tales of enslavement, perversion, incest,
obsession, love and death. Sharron's live performances are
stark, compelling, and delicate. As with her music, her
performance continues the tradition of the balladeer. She is
like the roving storyteller, bringing tales of terror, sadness
and joy to a stranger's hearth on a dark and stormy night.
Sharron's debut album Beautiful Twisted was released by
Australian psych label Camera Obscura in 2002 and received
rave reviews around the world. It was listed in Rolling Stone
Magazine's Critics' Top Albums of 2002. After touring with US
psychedelic folk band The Iditarod, she collaborated with them
on an album of wintry songs and soundscapes entitled Yuletide
and released by avant/experimental label Elsie and Jack in
2003
Sharron's second solo album, Songs of Love and Loss, was
recorded at home in Oxford and at Dungeon Studios in the
Cotswolds. The album features Jane Griffiths on fiddle and
viola, Jon Fletcher on harmonica and occasional guitar, banjo
and vocals, Colin Fletcher on bass, as well as BBC Folk Award
-winning fiddler Jon Boden and Grammy-nominated early music
violinist Giles Lewin. The album was finished in Providence
and mixed with Jeffrey Alexander (The Iditarod, Black
Forest/Black Sea). Songs of Love and Loss is a natural follow
-up to Beautiful Twisted, in places darker and more
discordant, in others gentler and sweeter.
Other recent and ongoing collaborations include The Black
Dove, an album written and recorded with Californian folk
songsmith Christian Kiefer; Tau Emerald, a duo with Tara Burke
(Fursaxa) and Leaves From Off the Tree, an album of
traditional songs recorded with Meg Baird and Helena Espvall
released on Bo' Weavil Recordings.
Sharron has been featured in The Wire, Dirty Linen, New Folk
Sounds, Arthur Magazine, Ptolemaic Terrascope and Broken Face.
She has been interviewed on BBC Radio 3 for 'A Place Called
England' discussing the future of English folk music and
recorded sessions for BBC Radio Scotland, Freakzone on Radio
6, and independent radio stations across the US. Her fanbase
includes veteran folkies Shirley Collins and Archie Fisher as
well as indie figureheads Michael Gira, David Tibet and Sonic
Youth's Thurston Moore.
http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec172_release_pag
e.htm
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01-Travellers Two [03:09]
02-Evening Wings [03:05]
03-Stoikite [03:09]
04-Barrowlands [05:44]
05-Full Moon [03:54]
06-Pilgrims' Return [01:28]
07-Henbane [04:04]
08-Water Divining [02:37]
09-Bani Caapi [03:47]
10-Mermaids' Call [06:01]
11-Laureola [05:38]
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42:36 min