Fursaxa
Haunting, tape-hiss folk that sounds like a medieval liturgy recorded in a haunted forest. Ethereal vocal loops meet dusty Casio drones for deep, solitary immersion.
Haunting, tape-hiss folk that sounds like a medieval liturgy recorded in a haunted forest. Ethereal vocal loops meet dusty Casio drones for deep, solitary immersion.
Listening to Fursaxa feels like stumbling upon a sacred ritual in a clearing where the laws of time don't quite apply. Tara Burke creates a world that is simultaneously ancient and deeply personal, using the limitations of home-recording to build vast, cavernous spaces. The music is defined by a heavy, humid atmosphere where acoustic instruments and cheap electronics are submerged in layers of reverb, creating a sound that is both earthy and ghost-like.
What truly sets Fursaxa apart is the way Burke uses her voice. Rather than traditional songwriting, she employs her vocals as a primary instrument, stacking wordless harmonies and liturgical chants into dense, shimmering towers of sound. It is a sonic language that feels borrowed from a forgotten era of mysticism, yet the presence of a Casio keyboard or a slightly out-of-tune mandolin keeps it grounded in the experimental 'New Weird America' tradition.
Begin your journey with 'Alone in the Dark Wood'. It is the most fully realized expression of her aesthetic, balancing the raw intimacy of her early 4-track experiments with a richer, more diverse instrumental palette. It serves as a perfect gateway into her discography of forest-dwelling psych-folk and meditative drones.
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.
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