Arborea (band)
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Arborea is an American psychedelic folk duo consisting of husband and wife Buck Curran and Shanti Curran. Buck Curran provides vocals, guitar, slide guitar, and sawing fiddle, while Shanti Curran provides lead vocals, banjo, 'Banjimer' (a type of banjo dulcimer made by Tennessee luthier Gwen Forrester),
harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...
, ukulele, sawing fiddle, and
hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...
. They share songwriting, arranging, and producing.


Recording

Arborea's first three albums include their debut ''Wayfaring Summer'' (2006), their self-titled album (Fire Museum, 2008), and ''House of Sticks'' (Borne! Recordings/Acuarela Discos, 2009), which was distributed in the U.S. by
Darla Records Darla Records is an independent record label founded by James Agren in October 1993 while he was in New York. Darla's first release was a 7-inch by Grifters, an indie rock/lo-fi band from Memphis. Background The music of the artists on the ...
. Arborea curated and produced the compilation album ''Leaves of Life'' to help with relief efforts in Africa such as the UN World Food Program. The compilation was released on Borne! Recordings and includes notable artists such as
Alela Diane Alela Diane Menig (born April 20, 1983), known as Alela Diane, is an American singer-songwriter from Nevada City, California, Nevada City, California. Early life and education Diane was born in Nevada City, California, Nevada City, California ...
, Devendra Banhart, and
Marissa Nadler Marissa Nadler (born April 5, 1981) is an American musician and fine artist. Active since 2000, she is currently signed to Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union, and released her ninth full-length studio album, ''The Path of the Clouds'', in Oc ...
. The artwork for ''Leaves of Life'' was created by musician and artist
Hanna Tuulikki Hanna Tuulikki is a Finnish-English vocalist, musician and artist, born in Sussex, who is involved in the Nalle (Finnish for "teddy bear") and Scatter musical projects, and has also contributed to the One Ensemble of Daniel Padden.Cooper, NeilEm ...
. In 2010 Important Records released ''We Are All One, in the Sun: A Tribute to
Robbie Basho Robbie Basho (born Daniel R. Robinson, Jr., August 31, 1940 – February 28, 1986) was an American acoustic guitarist, pianist and singer. Biography Basho was born in Baltimore, and was orphaned as an infant. Adopted by the Robinson family, ...
'', a compilation album that was produced by Buck Curran. The album features
Meg Baird Meg Baird is an American musician based in San Francisco, California, United States, who, in addition to her solo career, is known as a founding member, lead vocalist, and drummer for Heron Oblivion, along with members from Assemble Head in Sunbur ...
, Helena Espvall,
Steffen Basho-Junghans Steffen Basho-Junghans (born Steffen Junghans; 27 November 1953 – 1 December 2022) was a German guitarist and composer. Biography Basho-Junghans was born in North Thuringia in the former German Democratic Republic on 27 November 1953. At the ...
,
Glenn Jones Glenn Jones (born September 27, 1962 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American R&B/soul singer. He is best known for his songs "Show Me", "We've Only Just Begun (The Romance Is Not Over)" and "Here I Go Again" which reached No. 1 on the Billboa ...
,
Fern Knight Fern Knight is an American psychedelic folk band currently based in Washington, D.C. Formed in 1999 by Margaret Ayre (née Wienk), the group performs music inspired by the spooky, pastoral sounds of classic British acts like Pentangle and Steel ...
, Cian Nugent, and Grammy-nominated, Iraqi-born
oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...
master
Rahim Alhaj Rahim AlHaj ( ar, رحيم الحاج, born c. 1968) is an Iraqi American oud musician and composer. Early life AlHaj was born in Baghdad, Iraq and began playing the oud (an Arabic lute) at age nine. Early on, it was evident that he had a remark ...
. In 2008 the duo was interviewed for both a
Terrascope Online {{Infobox magazine , image_file = pto.png , image_size = , image_caption = ''Ptolemaic Terrascope'' logo , editor = Phil McMullen (1988–2005) Pat Thomas (2005-07) , editor_title = , staff ...
feature article, and the July/Aug 2008 issue of Italy's '' Blow Up'' magazine. In 2009 Arborea did a live session and interview in London at BBC Radio 3 for the radio program 'World on 3'with host Mary Ann Kennedy. In 2011 they released their fourth album 'Red Planet' on the Oregon label Strange Attractors Audio House. In April 2012 Arborea was invited to National Public Radio (
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
) headquarters in Washington D.C. and recorded a ''Tiny Desk Concert''. In 2013 Arborea released their fifth album 'Fortress of the Sun', their first for ESP'-Disk. In 2016 Arborea's music was featured on the Official Trailer for the movie 'Into the Forest' starring Elliot Page and Evan Rachel Wood. In the Summer of 2016 Buck Curran debuted his first solo album 'Immortal Light', a joint release by ESP-Disk and Buck's new imprint Obsolete Recordings. The album was written, produced, performed, recorded, and mixed entirely by Buck and features Shanti on backing vocals on the songs 'New Moontide' and the CCR cover of 'Bad Moon Rising'. The title track 'Immortal Light' written by Buck features Shanti on lead vocals and harmonium.


Touring

Arborea's first major performance was at the
Green Man Festival The Green Man Festival is an independent music, science and arts festival held annually in mid-August in the Brecon Beacons, Wales. Green Man has evolved into a 25,000 capacity week long event, showcasing predominantly live music (in particular ...
in Wales in August 2007. In November 2007 they did a brief tour in Spain and performed at the Tanned Tin Festival in Spain that year. After returning to the U.S., they performed on WNYC's ''Spinning On Air'' program, with host David Garland. The session first aired in January 2008, and re-aired in November 2008. In December 2008 they travelled back to Europe and spent a month touring in Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy. On May 20th, 2009 Arborea flew to London and recorded an interview and live session for the BBC Radio 3 program 'BBC World on 3' with host Mary Ann Kennedy. The session was produced by Roger Short and aired on Friday, June 5th 2009. In January and February 2010 the duo toured in France, Spain, and Italy. While in Spain they performed for the second time at the Tanned Tin Festival. Early in 2010 the duo did a cross-country U.S. tour that included a SXSW showcase at St David's Church/Bethel Hall. Later that year Arborea toured the UK and Ireland which included performances at the Moseley Folk Festival in England and Body & Soul/Electric Picnic Festival in Ireland. Arborea toured again in Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, and Scotland in May and June 2011 which included performances at the Body & Soul Summer Solstice Festival in Ireland, Serralves Festival in Portugal, Gea Festival in Spain. They also did two Cinemascore concerts in Spain reinterpreting the soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film ''Dead Man'' for a live audience while the film was shown in Spanish subtitles. In 2011 Arborea went on an extensive U.S. cross-country tour in support of ''Red Planet''. While on tour Arborea performed at the Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina, as part of the ''Artist and Author Series''. In March 2012 Arborea showcased for a second time at Bethell Hall in St David's Episcopal Church for their official SXSW showcase. The showcase was attended by many senior music writers and DJs including David Fricke of ''Rolling Stone'', Jon Pareles of the ''New York Times'', Bob Boilen of NPR, and Kevin Cole of KEXP. Following SXSW Arborea was invited to the NPR to record a Tiny Desk Session with Bob Boilen. Their Tiny Desk Session was recorded on 20 April and aired on 17 May 2012. Arborea performed two shows at the 51st Philadelphia Folk Festival in August 2012 which was followed by a short tour with California-based singer-songwriter Mariee Sioux. During April and May 2013 Arborea did a 16 date tour in France, Spain, and Portugal (29 April through 20 May). During that tour (14-17 May) they supported Low for their tour of Spain which included concerts at theatres in Valencia, Zaragoza, Madrid, and Valladolid. In October Arborea supported Bonnie 'Prince' Billy during a brief east coast tour which included shows at One Longfellow Square in Portland, ME (10 October), at Columbus Theatre in Providence, RI (11 October), and Calvin Theatre in Northampton, MA (12 October). On October 15 they returned to Italy for 9 shows, traveling with Italian singer-guitarist Laboule (Paolo Novellino) who supported the tour. In March 2014 Arborea did a three-week US tour which included shows at Joe's Pub in NYC and their third official SXSW showcase at Bethel Hall/St David's Church in Austin. In July 2014 Arborea performed in Copenhagen and was also a featured act at the Fano Free Folk Festival in Fano, Denmark. In November 2014 Arborea did a brief tour in Ireland which included shows in Dublin at Whelans and Roisin Dubh in Galway. In April and May 2015 Arborea did an extensive tour in Europe (again with Laboule opening) performing 8 shows in Italy, 3 shows in Switzerland, 5 shows in Germany, Denmark, and 4 shows in Sweden. Upon their return to Maine in mid May Arborea took a hiatus from touring.


Critical reception

''Wayfaring Summer'' was part of a feature article on
psychedelic folk Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music. Chara ...
music in a 2007 issue of ''
Dirty Linen ''Dirty Linen'' was a bi-monthly magazine of folk and world music based in Baltimore, Maryland. The magazine ceased publication in the spring of 2010. The magazine offered extensive reviews of folk music recordings, videos, books, and concert ...
'' magazine, written by Lahri Bond, who described their music as "timeless" and "haunted by deep shadows". In the 2008 issue of ''Dream'' magazine, publisher George Parsons wrote that ''Wayfaring Summer'' was "easily one of the best debut albums I've heard in many moons". They received critical acclaim in 2008 from NPR producer Robin Hilton, who described their self-titled album as "an incredibly spare and beautiful collection of songs", and Shanti's voice as "hypnotically beautiful", as well as receiving favorable reviews from the ''
Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
,'' and the British music magazine ''
The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...
''. ''House of Sticks'' received a glowing review from the BBC, and the duo later recorded a session in London for the BBC ''World on 3'' program. ''We Are All One, in the Sun'' made the list of Best Acoustic Albums of 2010 in ''Acoustic Guitar'' magazine, was a Top Editors pick in the December issue of ''Guitar Player'', received fours stars in ''Mojo'', and positive reviews from ''The Wire'' and ''Pitchfork''. ''Red Planet'' received critical praise, including Top Vinyl Pick in the September 2011 issue of ''Mojo'', Editors Top Pick in the December 2011 issue of ''Guitar Player'', and Best Under-the-Radar Albums of 2011 as listed by senior writer David Fricke in ''Rolling Stone''. ''Fortress of the Sun'' (2013) was released by
ESP-Disk ESP-Disk is a New York-based record company and label founded in 1963 by lawyer Bernard Stollman. History Though it originally existed to release Esperanto-based music, beginning with its second release (Albert Ayler's ''Spiritual Unity''), ESP b ...
, coinciding with the label's 50th Anniversary. The album made AllMusic's Favorite Folk Albums of 2013 and Favorite Singer/Songwriter Albums of 2013, ''Acoustic Guitar'' Best Acoustic Albums of 2013, Echoes Best of 2013 Listener Poll, textura's Top Ten Albums of 2013, Portland Phoenix Top Ten Albums of 2013, Folk Radio UK Best Albums of 2013, Mojo 4 Stars. Bob Boilen included Arborea's SXSW performance among his NPR list of Favorite Concerts of 2012 and recommended live acts.


Discography

* ''Wayfaring Summer'' (Summer Street, 2006) * ''Arborea'' (Fire Museum, 2008) * ''House of Sticks'' (Borne!/Darla, 2009) * ''Leaves of Life'' (Borne!/Darla, 2009) * ''We Are All One, in the Sun: A Tribute to Robbie Basho'' (Important, 2010) * ''Red Planet'' (Strange Attractors Audio House, 2011) * ''Fortress of the Sun'' (
ESP-Disk ESP-Disk is a New York-based record company and label founded in 1963 by lawyer Bernard Stollman. History Though it originally existed to release Esperanto-based music, beginning with its second release (Albert Ayler's ''Spiritual Unity''), ESP b ...
, 2013)


References


External links


Official website

BBC World on 3

NPR Tiny Desk

Rolling Stone Magazine

AllMusic Favourite Folk Albums 2013

AllMusic Favourite Singer/Songwriter Albums 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arborea Psychedelic folk groups American indie folk groups