FURSAXA "Lepidoptera"

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Lepidoptera, Fursaxa's fifth full-length release, has the same sound heard on previous releases: a lo-fi concatenation of deliberately strummed acoustic guitars, tambourines, organs, a healthy dose of room tone (perhaps to evoke the leaden quiet of an empty cathedral) and Burke's multi-tracked vocals, mixed to be indistinct and indecipherable. Her droning dirges have ancestors in the frosty harmonium-saturated madrigals of doom Nico sang on The Marble Index. Like those chansons of the damned, all Burke's compositions (it seems inappropriate to call them songs -- you won't be whistling these tracks while you wash your car or humming them in the shower) move at a solemn, contemplative pace and feature little in the way of dynamics, chord changes, hooks or melody. Not that this is bad -- it's just not the point of this music. Some are vaguely pastoral ("Pyrcantha", on which Burke layers her moans over the same two guitar chords strummed repeatedly) and some are downright oppressive, as is the case with the glacial, foreboding "Freedom". Some are wordless ("Tyranny", which features free-form fife-piping and some primitive pounding on what sounds like a tabla); others sound like field recordings of Wiccans casting spells ("Purple Fantasy", "Una de Gato"). All seem to aspire to function as aural mandalas -- dense, interweaving patterns of sound to beguile the rational mind and facilitate meditation.
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Rob Horning / Popmatters

ANAHITA "Arcana en Cantos"

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Les écrivains grecs, qui furent les premiers à donner un témoignage extérieur sur la religion iranienne ancienne, parlent tous du culte d'une déesse qu'ils comparent soit à Athéna, soit à Aphrodite. Il s'agit d'Anahita à laquelle un hymne important (le Cinquième Yasht) est consacré dans l'Avesta. Son domaine semble couvrir les trois fonctions de la prospérité, de la violence, de la souveraineté (selon la classification de Georges Dumézil), puisque le texte développe sa louange en l'appelant Aredvi (l'humide), Sura (la forte), Anahita (l'immaculée). Il est cependant possible qu'Anahita ait d'abord été exclusivement une divinité de la troisième fonction (donc homologue de la Sarasvati du Véda) avant de se transformer en « grande déesse », surtout lorsque l'influence iranienne se fut étendue à tout le Proche-Orient (où les cultes féminins étaient nombreux aux alentours du Ier siècle).

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Universalis


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Anahita, dont le nom signifie «Immaculée», déesse iranienne de l'eau et de la fertilité, était très vénérée durant la période achéménide (558-330 av. J.-C.)
Elle était associée au grand dieu Mithra.
Identifiée à la planète Vénus, elle était censée descendre d'Isthar, divinité babylonienne de la fertilité associée à la même planète.
Au IVe siècle av. J.-C., le roi Artaxerxés II ordonna que l'on dressât des images d'Anahita dans toutes les grandes cités de l'empire.
Le culte de la déesse s'étendit à travers l'Asie Mineure et l'Asie occidentale. Anahita venait en aide à Spenta Armaiti et était associée à Haoma, le dieu qui conférait l'immortalité.
Anahita était souvent représentée vêtue d'habits d'or, d'une couronne et de bijoux.
Ses animaux consacrées étaient la colombe et le paon, et la prostitution sacrée faisait partie de son culte.

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Mythologica


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Tara Burke and Helena Espvall-Santoleri work seamlessly together here, both of their voices mixing and swelling in a loose field populated by cello, accordion, guitar (both forward and gleefully reversed), and other accents of warm noise. This kind of an album is just pure comfort for me. It conjures up a special mood that I simply want to stay in for as long as possible. It feels like the freshness of spring, or the meditative space of plants. At times, the whole thing seems to be breathing, which is a wonderful treat. The lo-fidelity sound of the album effectively makes "Arcana en Cantos" seem even more like a dug up artifact that we are fortunate to be hearing.

This disc is divided up into three tracks of slow-motion psych-dirge that somehow reminds me of a more raw Dead Can Dance. The central piece is the massively long second track, which is moved along by some lovely clean electric guitar playing and not much else. The minimalism and slow organic growth of this track left the biggest impact on me, as I hardly noticed the 35 minutes that apparently passed as it played.

This might not be the most mindblowing thing that either of these artists has done, and I know it won't surprise any Fursaxa fans. Nevertheless, I don't want to stop listening to this disc. Its strangely comforting and introspective atmosphere leaves me feeling refreshed over and over again.

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Charles Franklin

Tau Emerald "Travellers Two"

This collaborative venture from Fursaxa's Tara Burke and Sharron Kraus came about when the two musicians missed a flight bound for Finland. Instead of rebooking or changing flights the duo decided to spend the week at Sharron's house recording this album. The end product of their endeavours is a three-quarter-hour collection of improvised acoustic psychedelia and avant-folk song crafting. There are comparatively few pieces that would fit into any conventional song template, but the largely a cappella, almost ecclesiastical sounding 'Hensbane' stands alongside the mediaeval-styled title track and the drifting sea shanty 'Mermaid's Call' as examples of what these two can do within the parameters of 'traditional' folk music. Elsewhere, you'll find a varied approach to instrumental music, with some pieces along the lines of 'Evening Wings' propelled by melodious string plucks and sonorous metallic drone tones, others taking the form of pure percussion, as on the magical 'Stoikite' while 'Laureola' establishes a reedy astract drone. With so much emphasis on variety and multi-instrumental exploration, Travellers Two is an album that never fails to maintain your interest, ranking amongst the best work of either artist. Highly recommended.
Boomkat