FERN KNIGHT
MUSIC FOR WITCHES AND ALCHEMISTS
Original Issue: 2006 VHF (vhf#101) Buy it here!!!
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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5
IMHO, the more beautiful folk-related album of 2006
1 Song For Ireland
2 Awake, Angel Snake
3 W. Memphis
4 Murder Of Crows
5 Lintworme, Pt. I
6 Marble Grey
7 Shingle River
8 The Dirty South
9 Summer Of Throg
10 What The Crows Left Behind
11 Lullaby
from Boomkat:
Fern Knight is guitarist, cellist and singer Margie Wienk in collaboration with a revolving cast of musicians, in this instance largely culled from the Espers line-up (Meg Baird, Greg Weeks and the ubiquitous Otto Hauser). As you can tell from both the artist name and album title, this project really isn't going out of its way to avoid the faerie folk typecasting acts like Espers are associated with, and sure enough Ms. Wienk guides her troupe of followers through the acid folk haunted wood with aplomb. As is often the case with this scene, much of the influence here has been taken from English folk fusion groups from the '60s and '70s. Opener, 'Song For Ireland' has that hypnotic Wicker Man feel that's referenced so often by this music, while 'Awake, Angel Snake' contains some of Greg Weeks' curiously medieval sounding acid lead guitar. As the album starts to draw to a close, 'What The Crows Left Behind' proves to be one of the finest things here; an upbeat waltz featuring Jesse Sparhawk's beautiful harp playing and some great ensemble arrangement and vocal harmonizing from the Espers crew. Music For Witches And Alchemists might turn out to be exactly the record you expect it to be, but given the quality of both the writing and performances, that's far from a bad thing. Excellent stuff.
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