Sasha Siem announces Bird Burning LP, unveils title track

08 September 2016, 11:15 | Written by Andrew Hannah

(Tracks)

(Sasha Siem)

Anglo-Norwegian Sasha Siem is releasing her second album next month,titled Bird Burning.

Bird Burning explores a relationship through the prisms of medieval symbolism and Siem's Sámi heritage, including the tradition of "yoiking" or singing in a trance to invoke living things. As Siem explains, "the Sámi don't sing songs about things or people or places, they sing them directly into existence."

On the album, the original five tracks (including "Crow") are interlaced with a series of medieval "airs" whose structure tells the development of a romantic relationship from first meeting through to death.

"Bird Burning" lives up to its medieval billing; it has the feeling of a madrigal, from the booming drums and the deep, bassy strings through to Siem's sweetly chanted vocals and the effect is to remove us from the 21st century world to a place where traditional cultures and forgotten practices are alive and well.

Recorded at the Greenhouse studios in Iceland with Valgeir Sigurðsson, Bird Burning will be out 28 October on Blue Plum Records. The tracklist and artwork are below.