Birdengine

Lawry Joseph Tilbury, also known as Birdengine, is an English musician, producer and singer-songwriter .

Career

In 2005, Tilbury released his debut EP ''Birdengine'', a collection of experimental tape melodies, on the now defunct Scottish label Benbecula Records. The self-produced EP was hailed as "the first relevant work of freak-folktronica" by Stylus Magazine.

Another EP ''Early 4-track recordings'' (2006) was released on Benbecula, with several reviewers noting Tilbury's "natural talent for story telling".

In 2007, Independent label Drift Records released ''I Fed Thee Rabbit Water'', a mini-album of wandering folk songs which garnered Tilbury praise for his stark nylon guitar playing,Jason Walnut
Birdengine "I Fed Thee Rabbit Water" (Drift 2007)
, Americana UK website. Retrieved 8 April 2009. and deadpan humour "There's not likely to be a more arresting opening couplet to an album this year":

:''I spent the Summer cutting Heads off Dogs,''
:''I spent the Winter trying to sew them back on''
:''- Heads Off Dogs, I Fed Thee Rabbit Water''

Tilbury spent 2010 recording songs to a 16 track reel-to-reel tape player. These sessions culminated in the debut full-length LP ''The Crooked Mile'' and a later EP ''I Like Totally Do Not Understand Or Whatever'', released in 2011 by Bleeding Hearts Records and A Beard of Snails Records respectively. ''The Crooked Mile'' garnered widely positive reviews, and was described by Uncut as "...like a waltz for the dead – the results are unmistakable and unsettling.", and by The Quietus as "Outsider Music, riddled with themes of alienation and a sense of not belonging; an outcast even among the freaks".

Following a 10 year hiatus, Birdengine released his third album SOMNAM in 2021. SOMNAM contains themes of grief, sleep and nostalgia and utilises tape loops, vocal sampling, warped distorted synthesis and organic rhythms created using found sound. Later in 2021 Birdengine released the mini-album BRUTAL, 9 very different pieces from solo piano sketches to distorted heavy synth via church organ and field recordings.

Birdengine's live performances have been described as "both unnerving and intriguing in equal measures", having "strange and compelling beauty"Helen Mitchell, Birdengine Live Review, Maverick Magazine, Issue 80: March 2008, p. 94. and a "bizarre, yet deeply likeable tone".Mark Dishman (15 May 2009
The Great Escape: Birdengine, The Basement, Brighton, 14 May
The Argus Newspaper. Retrieved 21 November 2015.

Discography

Studio albums

*''I Fed Thee Rabbit Water'' (2007, Drift Records)
*''The Crooked Mile'' (2011, Bleeding Heart Recordings)
*''SOMNAM'' (2021, Eyeless Records)
*''BRUTAL'' (2021, Thee Evil Twin)

EPs

*''Birdengine EP'' (2005, Benbecula Records)
*''Early 4 Track Recordings EP'' (2006, Benbecula Records)
*''Black Dictaphone EP'' (2009, Thee Evil Twin)
*''I Like Totally Do Not Understand Or Whatever EP'' (2011, A Beard of Snails Records)
*''No Arms And No Friends / Ghost Club'' (2011, Lynch(ed) Recordings)

With other musicians

*''Trunk (credited as 'Mortis Tobias & Clara Kindle')'' (2008, with Daniel Clark)

References

External links

*

Official blog

Birdengine
on Myspace

Birdengine
on Facebook

Birdengine
on Bandcamp

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birdengine
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
English male singer-songwriters
English singer-songwriters
Musicians from Dorset
Musicians from Brighton and Hove
Freak folk
21st-century English singers
21st-century British male singers