Arborea Visit The Cosmic American Jamboree

Thursday, September 1, 2011 ● 12-2 pm (edt)
WTJU 91.1 FM/Streaming at WTJU.net

Tune in during the first hour of The Cosmic American Jamboree this Thursday, when indie-folk duo Arborea pay Lonesome George a visit before heading off to an outdoor concert later at The Garage in downtown Charlottesville.

Arborea, an avant-folk duo from Maine, formed in the summer of 2005 by husband and wife Buck and Shanti Curran. Their music follows in the progressive folk rock tradition of artists Tim Buckley, Jeff Buckley, Chris Whitley, and Pentangle. Buck plays guitar, slide guitars, bowed strings, flutes, banjo, and vocals. Shanti provides lead vocals, banjo, ukulele, bowed strings, harmonium, and percussion. Arborea is often joined by Helena Espvall on cello.  Their songs are, as described by George Parsons of Dream Magazine,” Low key intimate spellcasting affairs; the fact that they are a couple might help to explain the seamless organic blending of their music together. Conjuring truly transportational magic out of the simplest ingredients. Their songs might be a hundreds of years old, and there’s little here to lock them into any moment other than forever”.

Since 2006 Arborea has performed throughout the US, UK, and Europe...including radio sessions on the BBC, WXPN, and WNYC. In 2009 Arborea curated the 'Leaves of Life' compilation album to benefit the UN World Food Program, and in 2010 they curated the Robbie Basho tribute album 'We Are All One, In the Sun', which made Acoustic Guitar Magazine's 'Best Acoustic Albums of 2010', glowing reviews from The Wire and Pitchfork, and Mojo Magazine 4 Stars. Their 4th album 'Red Planet' was released in 2011 by the Oregon label Strange Attractors Audio House. Equal parts psychedelia and backwater folk, inspired by Smithsonian field recordings, Arborea succeeds in creating a new folk form of breathtaking originality.

Submitted by Peter Jones, WTJU Folk