(credit:
Jan Stuhr; download
for public use)
+
*Album comes out September 29 in Europe
and October 14 in the United States
*Announcement of tour dates with Neko Case
in Europe
*Plus, the exclusive track and video
launch of “Missing At Sea” with SPIN
+
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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.”
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
