Maggie Bjorklund is releasing a new album Shaken on September 29 in Europe and on October 14 in the United States via Bloodshot Records. PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM HERE:
Listen and/or watch the hypnotic seirēnes song of the instumental track "Missing at Sea," and imagine this could be what Orpheus heard.
Bjorklund is a pedal steel guitarist/singer/composer from Copenhagen, Denmark. She has made a name for herself as an exceptional and stylistically unique musician, combining the tastes and techniques a wide variety of music - country, indie rock, film scores, psychedelia, pop - into a seamless blend of roots music. Over the years she has landed coveted touring gigs with Jack White (and performed on his latest Lazaretto), X’s John Doe and Exene Cervenka, and Howe Gelb and recruited big names for her debut release Coming Home in 2011: Mark Lanegan, Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino, John Auer (the Posies), to name a few.
Shaken puts Bjorklund together with another A-plus band, consisting of drummer Convertino, Barb Hunter on cello, Jim Barr (Portishead) on upright bass, John Parish (noted for his work as a singer/songwriter/producer with PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse) on guitars/electric bass and production, and a featured guest vocal appearance by Kurt Wagner (Lambchop).
The album was written while Bjorklund was recently tending to her mother in the hospital, just before she
passed away. Shaken is full of potent memories and emotional outpouring, as translated into the warm but dark sonic textures. Much of the music here - whether instrumental or with vocals - flows like lucid dreams, with the listener visualizing the scenery via detailed aural talisman (e.g. the surreal warped music box feel in “The Road To Samarkand”) and sepia-tinged picturesque tchotchkes (in “Walking” Maggie delicately sings, “ice in a glass/ and I held it to cool the palm of my hand” or “stones in the road/ worn-out boots and street signs for shows”). At the sound’s core are the subtly dominant and defining touches of Bjorklund’s pedal steel melody lines, best heard in the distorted ghostly swells of “Bottom of the Well” and the breathy waves of “The Unlucky.”
Track List:
Dark Side of the HeartWalking
Bottom of the Well
The Road to Samarkland
Fro Fro Heart
The Unlucky
Name in the Sand
Missing at Sea
Ashes
Amador
Teach Me How to Say Goodbye
In addition to the new release, Maggie will be playing some shows in August and October, supporting Neko Case and Jolie Holland. Details and dates are all listed below, with more dates to be added soon.
Aug 12 Voxhall Aahus, DK – supporting Neko Case
Aug 13 Kampnagel Summer in Hamburg DE – supporting Neko Case
Aug 14 Tolhuis in Amsterdam NL – supporting Neko Case
Oct 7 De Centrale in Gent BE – co-headline with Jolie Holland
Oct 8 Ideal Bar (Vega) in Copenhagen DK
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