Sharron Kraus is one of the most consistently engaging and creative artists in the current psych folk milieu, be it with her lushly orchestrated solo albums such as 2018’s ‘Joy’s Reflection is Sorrow’ and the earlier, baroque ’Friends and Enemies; Lovers and Strangers’, or with her recent work with author Justin Hopper, such as the eerie ‘Chanctonbury Rings’ (also with Belbury Poly) or the immersive and descriptive ‘Swift Wings’. As a part of Rusalnaia alongside Ex Reverie’s Gillian Chadwick, or as Tau Emerald with Fursaxa’s Tara Burke, Kraus has explored both electric and avant-folk territory respectively, and her work with The Iditarod and Espers’ Helena Espvall and Meg Baird is both incomparable and essential. This new release, under the name ‘Birdloom’, is in fact an older recording from the early 2000s, and a collaboration with the late David Muddyman (of Loop Guru) that Kraus undertook shortly after her debut album. Now, after Muddyman’s passing, these songs have been compiled and are available for the first time to hear. Sharing a love of Shirley Collins, Martin Carthy and traditional ballads, the two began recording via the sending and exchanging of CD-Rs, Muddyman’s electronic approach heightening and pulling the texts and songs in new, unexpected and fascinating directions. For example, their working of the folk standard ‘Polly on the Shore’ is perfectly described in correspondence by Muddyman as sounding akin to ‘Swordfishtrombones’-era Tom Waits, whilst the vaulted ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ is ‘like a folk band given to Jamaican Dubmaster who made a record and then played it underwater’. These comparisons capture a sense of the heady experimentalism and forward thinking that is embedded within these tracks, long before folktronica or the merging of organic folk tradition with synthetic elements became more commonplace. And, accordingly, it is an album that enchants, challenges and captivates, with each song still sounding startling and fresh twenty years on. From: https://moofmag.com/2023/06/26/album-review-sharron-kraus-birdloom/
