Helena Espvall has lived in Philadelphia since 2000 and is best known for her contribution to the pastoral neo-folk sound of Espers and the freakier excursions of Tara Burke's Fursaxa. Espvall's eclectic, multi-instrumental talents - primarily on the cello - have also led to performances with prestigious names ranging from Pauline Oliveros to British folk institutions Vasti Bunyan and Bert Jansch.
Her solo album ,'Nimix & Arx', together with her work with artists like Eugene Chadbourne, Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano also illustrates that she has more than a passing interest in a freer avant garde sound that underpins the most dynamic branches of the New Weird America.
Here she teams up to great effect with Japanese guitarist and singer Masaki Batoh frontman of the enigmatic avant-psych band 'Ghost'.
This cross cultural exchange stems from a chance meeting at the 2006 Terrastock Festival in Providence. There, Batoh expressed appreciation for Espvall's live set with Fursaxa and Sharon Krauss. The feeling turned out to be mutual when Batoh took to the stage with Ghost.
Espvall approached Batoh with the ideal of recording an album together built around traditional Swedish folk songs. Six of these songs make the finished album which was recorded in Tokyo.
In addition Batoh contributes a previously unrecorded track (Zeranium) which he had written for the ex-Galaxie 500 duo Damon & Naomi. This is a beautiful, gentle ballad sung in Japanese to the simple accompaniment of acoustic guitar and one of the standout tracks on the album.
Batoh's other vocal duties - this time in heavily accented English - are on a highly individual though ultimately unconvincing reading of Son House's blues classic 'Death Letter'. The main problem with the inclusion of this is that it jars against the folky mood created on the album as a whole.
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The five instrumentals which are interwoven with the vocal tracks are all the result of improvisations. The album opens with a big baroque flourish on ‘Polska’ and closes with a 12 minute plus atmospheric piece (Kyklopes). The latter is the album’s most ambitious track and begins with ambient sounds of the sea and wind before morphing into a gorgeous classical style melody with rich interplay between guitar and cello.
Of the Swedish songs, Uti VÃ¥r Hage is the most effective with the lyrical medieval-style arrangement and a finely judged harmonies which temper the occasionally abrasive vocal style of Espvall. In contrast, Kling Klang takes us away into the world of Heidi as it apparently recounts the tale of a herdsman whose loss of a cow is a misfortune for which he faces certain punishment upon his return home.
Overall, this is a beautifully measured sequence of songs and improvisations which manage to find a harmonious meeting point between the couple's diverse cultural backgrounds. Their eccentric tendencies are held largely in check and the restraint of their playing provides an underlying zen-like calm to create an album of genuine warmth and vitality.    Â
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