Fursaxa is a United States–based

psychedelic folk Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelic music that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of contemporary folk music, folk, but adds musical elements common ...

freak folk Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelic music that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music. ...

project led by Tara Burke of Pennsylvania. Her home-recordings feature acoustic guitar, simple

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...

electronic keyboard An electronic keyboard, portable keyboard, or digital keyboard is an electronic musical instrument based on keyboard instruments. Electronic keyboards include synthesizers, digital pianos, stage pianos, electronic organs and digital audio work ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

dulcimer The term dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

and her heavily

overdubbed Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more a ...

vocals on a 4-track recorder. She has been making music since childhood. Her music has been compared to

Nico Christa Päffgen (; 16 October 1938 – 18 July 1988), known by her stage name Nico, was a German singer, songwriter, actress, and model. Nico had roles in several films, including Federico Fellini's '' La Dolce Vita'' (1960) and Andy Warhol's ...

's solo work and is often categorized among

New Weird America New Weird America is a 21st-century style of music that primarily draws on psychedelic and folk music of the 1960s and 1970s. Etymology The term was coined by David Keenan in the issue 234 (August 2003) of ''The Wire'', following the Brattleb ...

artists. The writings of Medieval mystic

Hildegard von Bingen Hildegard of Bingen OSB (, ; ; 17 September 1179), also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner ...

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

, and

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and in ...

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 Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., commonly shortened to Acid Mothers Temple or AMT, is a Japanese rock music, rock band, the core of which formed in 1995. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career feat ...

, fellow Philadelphians

Bardo Pond Bardo Pond are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1991, and who are currently signed to London-based label Fire Records. The current members are Michael Gibbons (guitar), John Gibbons (guitar), Isobel Sollenberger (flute and vocals), ...

Iditarod The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod (), is an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of between 12 and 16 dogs, of which at leas ...

, 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 Anahita is the Old Persian form of the name of an Iranian goddess and appears in complete and earlier form as ('), the Avestan name of an Indo-Iranian cosmological figure venerated as the divinity of "the Waters" ( Aban) and hence associat ...

Discography

Studio albums *''Immured LP'', Sloowax (2016) *''Mycorrhizae Realm'' – CD & LP ATP Recordings (2010) *''Alone in the Dark Wood'' – CD, ATP Recordings & LP, Eclipse Records (2007) *''Amulet'' – CD, Last Visible Dog (2005) *''Lepidoptera'' – CD, ATP Recordings (2005) *''Madrigals in Duos'' – LP, Time-Lag Records (2004) *''Fursaxa'' – LP, Ecstatic Peace! (2002) *''Mandrake'' – CD, Acid Mothers Temple (2000) & LP, Eclipse Records (2004) Singles, EPs, and limited releases *''Maidenstone'' – 7-inch EP, Mt. St. Mtn. (2007) *''Harbinger of Spring'' – 3"CD, Jewelled Antler (2004) *''Fursaxa/Juniper Meadows'' – split CDR, Foxglove (2004) Self Released (Sylph) Recordings *''Kobold Moon'' – CD (2008) *''Myriad of Satyrids'' – CDR (2006) *''Amulet'' – CDR (2004) *''The Cult From Moon Mountain'' – CDR (2003) *''Trobairitz Are Here From Venus'' – CDR (2002) With Helena Espvall, as Anahita *''Arcana En Cantos'' – CD-R, Deserted Village (2006); LP, alt.vinyl (2010) *''Matricaria'' – CD, Important Records (2008) With Sharron Kraus, as Tau Emerald *''Travellers Two'' – CD, Important Records (2008)

External links

fursaxa blogATP Recordings pageThe Philadelphia Ambient ConsortiumFree Music Archive
{{Authority control New Weird America Psychedelic folk musicians 1969 births Living people Ecstatic Peace! artists ATP Recordings artists