Buck Curran and Max Tzortzatos (Deserto Parallax)

Event information

Buck Curran is an Irish American singer-songwriter-guitarist, record producer, painter and guitar maker. August 29th will see the release of 'Far Driven Sun', Curran's 7th full length solo album. As half of the duo Arborea, he has released 5 albums of other-worldly psych folk, and has produced two tribute albums to guitar maestro Robbie Basho, one archival release 'Robbie Basho: 'Live in Forlì, Italy 1982', as well as two more recent tributes to Jack Rose and Steffen Basho-Junghans. Curran's songwriting is poetic and mystical and his rough-hewn voice and droning psych-folk melodies curl like smoke. His acoustic and electric guitar playing is characterized by the extensive use of low alternate tunings, slide, Ebow, reverb,manipulating string overtones and dynamics creating haunting voice-like timbres on the instrument.

Bandcamp https://obsoleterecordings.bandcamp.com
Videos
Deep in the Lovin' Arms https://www.instagram.com/reel/DF5vSAqI7RA/?igsh=MXFobWRpemRndDRlYw==
New Moontide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukTCApavDPQ
Ghost on the Hill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh2J2uHFhlk
Winter Solstice 1 (for Steffen Basho) https://youtu.be/CbztQVSOPOE
NPR Tiny Desk Arborea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c_KKh1rmso

Curran’s music invokes swarming natural forces, looking for the borderline between the real and the sublime and, maybe, the supernatural
~ Jesse Jarnow/Relix Magazine/WFMU

Guitar tones linger and reverberate with a mystical translucence
~ Jennifer Kelly/Dusted Mag
The elegant tones that neo-folk artist Buck Curran draws from voice and guitar have a capacity to linger in the air long after the notes have faded. Recorded at the American guitarist's home in northern Italy shortly before the area went into lockdown, 'No Love Is Sorrow' is a beautiful piece of work, interspersing space, atmospheric instrumentals with more complete songs like spooky western "Ghost On The Hill', the ballad "Deep In The Lovin' Arms of My Babe'" and the title track. Curran sings with the gravelly decorum of Mark Lanegan but the songs remain, bewitchingly, just over the next horizon.
~ 8/10 Peter Watts/UNCUT Magazine

Psych Folk masterpiece shines bright: Best known as one half of Maine’s folk duo Arborea, Buck Curran’s mesmerising solo debut doesn’t depart too much from the whispered, dream-states Arborea excelled in since their formation in 2005. With the duo currently on hiatus, the presence of Shanti Deschaine’s gossamer-thin backing vocals on the hypnotic New Moontide and a brooding, sinister reading of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising provides a reassuring continuity.
Thanks to its breathtaking production, whole worlds hang in the plucked harmonics of Curran’s guitar strings, their deep echoes suggesting lonely, woebegone figures in lost landscapes. There’s an unerring sense of melancholy threaded through melodies that sometimes bring to mind the intimate reveries of vintage John Renbourn on the one hand, and Ry Cooder’s aching, cinematic slide work on the other. The border between folk and electronica shimmers and blurs on the vast spacescapes of Andromeda and the 13-minute title track, imbued with radiant harmonium and Deschaine’s tremulous invocations, is a haunted and haunting masterpiece.
Sid Smith/PROG Magazine

Max Tzortzatos/Deserto Parallax bio
Ancient legends, dark magicians, shepherds who speak with the wind and the mystery of the cosmic library. The Bernese troubadours of Deserto Parallax came together a long time ago. Before they were founded in Switzerland in 2017, they were already playing in various bands, including “Artlu Bubble And The Dead Animal Gang”.

While traveling from town to town, Deserto Parallax write their songs and invent their very own manifold “Folk Noir”. The band uses the cliché of the romantic anti-hero and combines different musical genres from the early seventies rock to more folky (obscure) tunes. The winds of the desert start howling…

It's a journey, not a destination. From intimate acoustic formations to rumbling electric live concerts, Deserto Parallax reminds us that music is timeless and has no borders. While lead singer/songwriter Maximilian Tzortzatos (formerly of Artlu Bubble & the Dead Animal Gang) pulls us into his world of tales and protest, the band underlines the depth of his words with the expression of a true live band; ever-changing and full of suspense.

Bandcamp https://desertoparallax.bandcamp.com
Here are some videos of Deserto Parallax
https://youtu.be/1lcF6BVxce0?si=ubmmDP-ZWuoF7sWW
https://youtu.be/-TVe5vKBhD0?si=GVMFrr1dD1ZcCNml

The music of Bernese cosmic explorers Deserto Parallax occupies a folk noir world of dreams, infinity, and mysteries. It offers a listening experience aptly described as a multi-sensory exploration into the realms of imagination, blurring the lines between reality and the subconscious.
~ Alex Gallacher /KLOF Magazine