Rusalnaia
Rusalnaia
Camera Obscura
There’s a haunting mystery to this simple yet powerfully-arranged disc. Rusalnaia is two women from Philadelphia who teamed up to write songs about Rusalki, Russian water spirits that can tickle you to death. Combining straight-forward vocals, tin whistles, rain sticks, Dobro, and those sorts of drums you find in drum circles, the music this pair makes would feel right at home in The Prancing Pony. Shannon Krause is the more authentic of the two, her bio shows her strengths lie with English and Appalachian folk music. Gillian Chadwick claims a more glam/metal background, and occasionally she sneaks in bits of electronic distortion, like the song “Kindling”. The album as a whole is conceptual, all the songs somehow relate to the mythic water fairies and their subaqueous world. While not exactly creepy, the tenor of the music harkens back to those primal fears of the unknown that still rule our rational world.
Camera Obscura: http://www.cameraobscura.com.au • Rusalnaia: http://www.myspace.com/rusalnaia
