Arborea: Maine Based Alt Folk Duo Performing in Asheville March 13

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by Asheville Now
on Wednesday, March 10, 2010

"Husband and wife team, Buck and Shanti Curran, construct a fragile, resonant world with a lingering Americana after-taste, shimmering with the same wide-open spaces Ry Cooder's captured so well on Paris, Texas."
- BBC

"Maine folk duo Arborea creates timeless music"
- Dirty Linen Magazine

"Shanti and Buck Curran get it right, with memorable songs that linger in the ether long after the last track ends."
- NPR

"Arborea's brand of folk music is ethereal, bone-chilling, and beautiful all at once!"
- Performing Songwriter Magazine

"Singularly breathtaking"
- Portland Phoenix

Brief Bio

Since 2006 Maine based Alt Folk duo Arborea (wife and husband Shanti and Buck Curran) has released 3 cds, performed shows and festivals in the U.S., U.K (Green Man Fest), and Europe...including a session for the BBC World on 3 program in London in 2009. Arborea is currently supporting their latest cd 'House of Sticks' released on Borne! Recordings. Buck Curran has also curated and produced a compilation cd titled 'Leaves of Life' that was released during the summer of 2009 http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/05/devendra-banhart-alela-diane-others-collaborate-on.html. Leaves of Life includes artists such as Alela Diane, Devendra Banhart, Starless and Bible Black, and Marissa Nadler. All proceeds from the sales of the record are going to support vital hunger relief programs run by the UN World Food Program. Arborea is also part of an Odetta tribute that was just released by the UK magazine Wears the Trousers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuQXRH7jxLE. Buck has curated a Robbie Basho tribute cd that is due out on Important Records in April of 2010 and features Meg Baird, Fern Knight, Arborea, Helena Espvall, Glenn Jones, Steffen Basho Junghans, Iraqi born (and Grammy nominated) Oud player Rahim Alhaj, and Irish guitarist Cian Nugent. The duo will be touring in Europe throughout January and February of 2010 and in the U.S. during March and April.

Latest Record Review

Arborea House of Sticks

From the Maine woods comes this beguiling, hypnotic, rustic album of dark, minimalist, ambient Americana. Arborea's self-titled debut made a splash last year and drew accolades from NPR and the BBC, and has since sold out (it's still available on itunes). Their verdant, bracingly earthy follow-up album House of Sticks takes the listener even deeper into the forest. Singer/banjo player Shanti Curran has an ethereal, frequently otherworldly voice that reminds of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, but with considerably more gravitas and soul. As an instrumentalist, she makes every note count: her plaintive, thoughtfully spaced plucking fits well with her voice alongside her husband Buck Curran's acoustic and electric guitar shading. Iron and Wine is an obvious comparison, although Arborea can be considerably darker, and have a broader sonic palette: this is not a band where you could say that after awhile, all their songs pretty much sound the same. And it's not freak-folk, although fans of that genre will undoubtedly be taken with their sound as well.

The album's opening track, River and Rapids blends dreampop and oldtime folk, banjo playing a sparse, circular melody beneath somewhat disembodied vocals. The way the guitar gradually builds and then interpolates within the hypnotic banjo melody of Beirut is gorgeously intricate. On Alligator, insistent banjo functions as a bassline beneath Shanti Curran's soul-inflected vocals and dreamlike layers of acoustic and slide guitar. With its guy/girl vocals, the long, pensive Dance, Sing, Fight echoes the Cure back when they were a goth band, concluding with a particularly apt Midnight Oil lyrical quote. Then it segues into the haunting Look Down Fair Moon, banjo playing a Middle Eastern-style oud taqsim line, but in the minor scale.

The gentle, Indian-inflected drone of the title track brings back the contemplative vibe of the first part of the album, its meticulously layered arrangement evocative of Brooklyn "porch techno" art-rockers the Quavers. Then the cd wraps up with the minimalist, reflective Onto the Shore, segueing into the final cut, In the Tall Grass, a warm, inviting lullaby with harmonium loops that grow to include the subtlest of slide guitar accents and vocalese after a long intro. It's chillout music for smart people and it's a clinic in how to say more with less.

~Lucid Culture

Arborea 2010 Tour Dates

January
(20) Le Scopitone
(21) Espace B/Paris, France
(22) Le Lezard/Colmar, France
(23) Le Clou/Nancy, France
(24) Grrrnd Zero/Lyon, France
(25) Les Pavillions Sauvages/Toulouse, France
(26) Celtic Pub/Tarbes, France
(29) Tanned Tin Festival/Castellon, Spain
(30) Tanned Tin Festival/Castellon, Spain

February
(1) Jimmy Jazz /Vitoria, Spain
(4) Antiguo Convento de La Merced/Ciudad Real, Spain
(5) Teatro Arbole/Zaragoza, Spain
(6) tbc/Tarragona, Spain
(7) Zabalotegi/Bergara, Spain
(9) tba/San Gemini, Italy
(10) Sinister Noise/Rome, Italy
(11) Jarmusch Club/Caserta, Italy
(12) Flat/Mestre, Italy
(16) Sazz'n Jazz (w/Nancy Elizabeth)/Brussels, Belgium
(26) Space Gallery/Portland, Maine

March
(4) The Space (w/Alexander Turnquist)/Hamden, Conneticut
(5) Spotty Dog Books and Ale (w/Alexander Turnquist)/Hudson, New York
(6) Highwire Gallery (w/Jesse Sparhawk and Eric Carbonara)/Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(7) Goat City 'House Concert' (w/Fern Knight)/Arlington, Virginia
(8) Cake Shop (w/Cabinet of Natural Curiosities and Spider-Jane Herships)/NYC, New York
(10) The Boot/Norfolk, Virginia
(12) tba/Atlanta, Georgia
(13) Firestorm Cafe (w/Jeff Zentner)/Asheville, North Carolina
(13) Asheville FM (Radio Performance) Saturday Sage Program/Asheville, North Carolina
(15) Blue Plate Special (Radio Performance) WDVX/Knoxville, Tennessee
(16) tba/Nashville, Tennessee
(19) SXSW/Austin, Texas

April
(2) House Concert/Chicago, Illinois
(3) tba/Chicago, Illinois
(7) Clawfoot House/Lincoln, Nebraska
(9) Live @ Lunch (Radio Performance) KRFC/Fort Collins, Colorado
(9) Everyday Joe's/Fort Collins, Colorado
(10) Gift Shop/Manitou Springs, Colorado
(11) Laughing Goat/Boulder, Colorado
(15) tba/Portland, Oregon
(17) tba/Santa Cruz, California
(18) Rite Spot/San Francisco, California
(19) tba/Berkeley, California
(30) North Star Cafe (w/Allysen Callery)/Portland, Maine

September
(4) Moseley Festival - Lunar Stage/Moseley, England
(18) Traditions of Western Herbalism Conference/Abiquiu, New Mexico
Upcoming tours: October (UK), Sept 15-25 (Midwest)