We recently announced the release of a Time Takes Away, the new album from Rusalnaia who are Sharron Kraus and Gillian Chadwick. In that post, which you can read here, we left you with a teaser trailer for the album, but today we bear new fruit in the form of the video premiere for Cast a Spell which you can watch above. This is what Sharron Kraus had to say about the song:
When we came together to write the songs for ‘Time Takes Away’, Gill and I had a lot to catch up on. Since writing our first album whilst living as neighbours in a loose community of musicians in Fishtown, Philadelphia, the community had fragmented amid some acrimony, Gill’s marriage had ended and I’d returned to Britain and moved out to rural Mid Wales, far from family and friends. The things that were on our minds obviously found their way into the songs we wrote. Distance and space and the way they relate to closeness and togetherness was a big theme. The need for space in relationships and how to find it was something we were particularly interested in and that cropped up in a number of songs, including this one.
What I was trying to do in writing the lyrics for ‘Cast A Spell’ was play with the idea of casting a love spell, of subverting the idea that the aim of such a spell would be to ensnare someone – that doesn’t appeal to me at all. Instead, I was thinking of the spell as a way of creating the right state of mind for finding the kind of relationship I wanted – one that was loving but free, ‘abiding yet exciting’.
Rusalnaia’s eponymous first album was recorded at Hexham Head Studios in Philadelphia by Greg Weeks (Espers, The Valerie Project, Marissa Nadler) and released on Camera Obscura Records in 2008.
For their new album it was Gillian’s turn to cross the ocean and join Sharron in the Welsh vicarage shed moved to. There the two of them set up to record an altogether heavier album, with Michael Tanner (Plinth, United Bible Studies) at the controls and Mark Wilden (The Evenings) on drums. Lyrics were finalised in front of a woodburning stove, arrangements were discussed on moonlit walks around the graveyard, and a new album started to take shape.
‘Time Takes Away‘ charts the breakdown of the musical community in Philadelphia that had nurtured Sharron and Gillian, as well as exploring themes relating to the passage of time, breakdowns of old relationships and new beginnings.
In the wreckage of what was lost, bright jewels hardened and tempered in the flames of suffering are found and celebrated.
‘Time Takes Away’ will be released by Cambrian Records, 15th July 2016.
Pre-Order the album here: https://rusalnaia.bandcamp.com/
Rusalnaia are performing together over a number of upcoming dates, see below.
Rusalania Tour Dates
*plus solo slot from Sharron Kraus
17-19th June
Sin-Eater Festival, The Bridges, Ratlinghope, Shropshire.
20th June
The Booth Hall, Hereford.
With Sproatly Smith.
21st June
Regather, 57-59 Club Garden Road
Sheffield.
With Arianne Churchman, Nick Jonah Davis.
22nd June*
Dulcimer, 567 Wilbraham Rd, Manchester.
With Nick Jonah Davis.
23rd June
The Golden Lion, Fielden Square, Todmorden.
With Nick Jonah Davis and Fuzzy Hell.
24th June
Nottingham, TBC.
25th June
Leigh Folk Festival, Leigh on Sea.
8-10th July*
SoL Party, nr. Hawkhurst, Kent.
www.rusalnaia.com
cambrianrecords.com