Fursaxa — Mycorrhizae Realm
Unlike her previous work, though, Mycorrhizae Realm is her first studio-based recordings, previously preferring to record in the comfort of her own home. Here she is helped by fellow Philadelphian and acid-folkster Greg Weeks of Espers to record her beguiling solo songs for farfisa, flute and mandolin frequently accompanied by Helena Espvall’s full-bodied cello (also of Espers) and the enchanting harp of Mary Lattimore (most recently found playing as part of Thurston Moore’s band).
As if to underline this collaborative mode, Burke has cryptically named the album after a symbiotic association between fungi and plant roots. And these players have worked together many times before under other guises, most notably 2007’s The Valerie Project which sought to provide an alternative soundtrack to the classic Czech film: 1970’s Valerie & Her Week of Wonders, based on Víèzslav Nezval’s book written in 1945, that wove fairytale traditions with transgressive coming-of-age experiences. And it’s this blend of the ethnic and the ethereal that flows strongly throughout Mycorrhizae Realm, bringing once more to mind not only Valerie but also other expressionistic European fairytale films such as The Singing Ringing Tree whose happy fairy tale endings were always slightly unhinged by a foreign surrealism.
Naturally, central to this reminiscence is Lattimore’s harp playing that creates glistening rainbows of sound on four of the seven tracks presented here. Her spellbinding plucks populate ‘Poplar Moon’ together with Burke’s jaunty mandolin in a marching nursery rhyme whose song seduces listeners into a secret, small glade before switching to a surging dance spiked by Espvall’s gypsy strings. Similar storytelling is evidenced on Well of Tuhala, named after a spring in Estonia whose seasonal floods due to a rising underground river were once thought to be the work of witches. Here the harp’s simple rising and repeated phrases create lingering harmonics that seek to drown the haunting, effected blend of voices before quickening in an intoxicated flurry to the finish.
By stepping outside of her comfort zone into a studio, Fursaxa has perhaps created a more vivid, albeit exquisitely eerie, soundworld where all contributions are marked by a richness that the ‘demo’ qualities, however alluring, of her 4-track recordings couldn’t quite achieve. This has resulted in a polished work that while, perhaps, less free and improvised, is all the more potent in reminding its audiences of the excited trepidation they felt as a child when presented with such realms of folkloric wonder.