Within recent years, Tio’tia:ke/ Montréal-based artist Allison Burik has unquestionably emerged a key part of the city’s vibrant jazz and experimental music scenes. A member of groups such as Bellbird (alongside Claire Devlin, Eli Davidovici, and Mili Hong), duo Umbrella Pine, they’ve also played various projects fronted by acclaimed musician Mali Obomsawin including the band that was featured on her celebrated 2022 album Sweet Tooth.
Burik’s debut solo full-length Realm sees this multifaceted musician-composer blending a plethora of infuences and approaches into an engrossing and mythologically informed whole, inspired by women and non-binary characters throughout folktales, lore, and real-world history. Atmosphere is the clear the driving force behind this set of nine pieces; Burik superimposes textural phrases of alto sax and bass clarinet, threading in their limpid vocals, feld recordings, subtle electronic treatments and even guitar (both from Burik themself and their Umbrella Pine collaborator Magdalena Abrego).
The album opens with a fierce, churning solo-duet that features simultaneous saxophone and singing from Burik, but soon dissolves into something more elusive. Built from a foundation of oceanside guitar and bird song captured during an artistic residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland, the initial vista of “As the Norns Weave” blossoms to embrace wordless voice, and beautifully intertwined layers of woodwinds that gradually grow in fluttering intensity. With the brief “Solstice 1 (Dreams and Memories),” this fluttering becomes a dim ficker framed within cavernous reverberation. On “Seal Folk,” the maritime sonics of Skagaströnd make a brief return in the form of lapping waves and beach-pebble footfalls that accompany Burik’s singing. Drawing from the Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ re-telling of the traditional “selkie” / seal-woman myth in her landmark book Women Who Run with the Wolves the piece inches toward vaguely foreboding territory, eventually reaching its apex in the electronically distressed vocals that close the track.
After “Solstice 2 (Cycles)” reprises its predecessor’s dark-hued resonances, “Birka 581” investigates as its subject an excavation in Birka, Sweden in the 1870s that uncovered a 10th-century Viking tomb. The grave was filled with warrior regalia —a sword, axe, two horses, a fighting knife, two lances, two shields and 25 armour-piercing arrows accompanied the body. The deceased was initially assumed to be male, but in 2017 DNA testing revealed otherwise, effectively providing concrete proof of the legendary “shield maidens” of Scandinavian folklore. Adopting a similar playing/ recording technique to “Be The Dragon” (simultaneous playing and vocalizing captured through strategically placed contact microphones) the piece begins with slow, bristling unison melodies, but subsequently introduces contrapuntal figures, and even additional overdubbed layers. “Heiemo og Nykkjen” is a nod to Burik’s Nordic heritage and offers a haunted arrangement of ancient Norwegian songs featuring reeds, voice, and subtle digital glimmer that softly illuminates its tenebrous expanses.
The final instalment of the “Solstice” series starts like its counterparts but rapidly establishes its position as the outlier of the entire record as disarmingly straightforward strummed acoustic guitar (courtesy of Abrego) and voice—singing lyrics, no less—become its focal point. Vanishing after a mere minute and ten seconds, the track bridges to “Fragment 94,” the album’s beautiful final. Abrego’s guitar is a primary ingredient here again, but resides in a far more impressionistic space, slowly unfurling chords and delicate clumps of harmonics atop which Burik sings and plays multiple parts that all swirl together. It’s nothing like anything else on the album, but the cut’s diffuse pastoralism provides an uplifting conclusion to the album. Its almost-truncated-feeling choral vocal coda gently beckons the listener to come back for another spin.
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photo:Sasha Pedro
Originally from Kansas City, Allison Burik moved to Boston to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Performance at Berklee College of Music, and a Master’s degree in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory. Following their graduation, they’ve maintained a steady engagement with an array of different musical forms. Brian Slattery of the New Haven Independent raised one of their live performances remarking that “Burik—who, in a band uniformly bursting with fierce talent, requires special mention for some transfixing, revelatory playing” Over the years, they have worked with notable musicians including Taylor Ho Bynum, George Garzone, Joe Morris, Tyshawn Sorey, Ingrid Laubrock, Ran Blake, Carla Kilhstedt, Anthony Coleman, Frank Tiberi, Bobby Watson, Jaleel Shaw, Kaïa Kater, Shannon LeClaire, Tia Fuller, and others. They’ve also been featured at festivals such as Suoni Per Il Popolo, Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival (France), POP Montreal, Halifax Jazz Fest, Vancouver Jazz Fest, and AmericanaFest (Nashville, TN), and participated in vital residency programs such as the Banff International Jazz and Creative Music Workshop, Iceland’s NES Artist Residency, and the Montréal Contemporary Music Lab.
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ALLISON BURIK ~ REALM
out: February 2nd, 2024 (CD/DL)
genres: experimental, ambient, folk
RIYL: Jason Sharp, Lankum, Mali Obomsawin, Patrick Shiroishi, Grouper.
Tracklist:
1. Be the Dragon
2. As the Norns Weave
3. Solstice I (Dreams and Memories)
4. Seal Folk
5. Solstice II (Cycles)
6. Heiemo og Nykkjen
7. Birka 581
8. Solstice III (The Promise)
9. Fragment 94
All tracks composed by Allison Burik, except 7 (traditional Norwegian, arranged by Burik).
Line up:
Allison Burik — Alto Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Voice, Alto Flute, Guitar (track 2), editing, co-producer, Art.
Magdalena Abrego — Guitar (8 & 9).
Sylvaine Arnaud — Recording Engineer, Mixing, Co-producer.
Peter Atkinson — Recording Engineer for guitar on track 8, guitar and winds on track 9.
Harris Newman — Mastering.
Renée Abaroa — Bone typeface on the cover.