Birdengine

Lawry Joseph Tilbury, also known as Birdengine, is an English musician, producer and singer-songwriter .[1]

Birdengine
Birdengine at End Of The Road Festival 2008
Birdengine at End Of The Road Festival 2008
Background information
Birth nameLawry Joseph Tilbury
OriginUnited Kingdom
GenresExperimental, Freak Folk, Found sound
Instrument(s)Guitar, vocals, sampler, synthesizer
Years active2005 (2005)— present
LabelsBenbecula Records, Drift Records, Bleeding Heart Records, Thee Evil Twin, Eyeless Records
Websitebirdengine.co.uk

Career

In 2005, Tilbury released his debut EP Birdengine, a collection of experimental tape melodies, on the now defunct Scottish label Benbecula Records. The self-produced EP was hailed as "the first relevant work of freak-folktronica" by Stylus Magazine.[2][3][4][5]

Another EP Early 4-track recordings (2006) was released on Benbecula, with several reviewers noting Tilbury's "natural talent for story telling".[6][7]

In 2007, Independent label Drift Records released I Fed Thee Rabbit Water, a mini-album of wandering folk songs which garnered Tilbury praise for his stark nylon guitar playing,[8] and deadpan humour "There's not likely to be a more arresting opening couplet to an album this year":[9]

I spent the Summer cutting Heads off Dogs,
I spent the Winter trying to sew them back on[10]
- Heads Off Dogs, I Fed Thee Rabbit Water

Tilbury spent 2010 recording songs to a 16 track reel-to-reel tape player. These sessions culminated in the debut full-length LP The Crooked Mile and a later EP I Like Totally Do Not Understand Or Whatever, released in 2011 by Bleeding Hearts Records[11] and A Beard of Snails Records[12] respectively. The Crooked Mile garnered widely positive reviews, and was described by Uncut as "...like a waltz for the dead – the results are unmistakable and unsettling.",[13] and by The Quietus as "Outsider Music, riddled with themes of alienation and a sense of not belonging; an outcast even among the freaks".[14]

Following a 10 year hiatus, Birdengine released his third album SOMNAM in 2021. SOMNAM contains themes of grief, sleep and nostalgia and utilises tape loops, vocal sampling, warped distorted synthesis and organic rhythms created using found sound.[15] Later in 2021 Birdengine released the mini-album BRUTAL, 9 very different pieces from solo piano sketches to distorted heavy synth via church organ and field recordings.

Birdengine's live performances have been described as "both unnerving and intriguing in equal measures",[8] having "strange and compelling beauty"[16] and a "bizarre, yet deeply likeable tone".[17]

Discography

Studio albums
  • I Fed Thee Rabbit Water (2007, Drift Records)
  • The Crooked Mile (2011, Bleeding Heart Recordings)
  • SOMNAM (2021, Eyeless Records)
  • BRUTAL (2021, Thee Evil Twin)

EPs
  • Birdengine EP (2005, Benbecula Records)
  • Early 4 Track Recordings EP (2006, Benbecula Records)
  • Black Dictaphone EP (2009, Thee Evil Twin)
  • I Like Totally Do Not Understand Or Whatever EP (2011, A Beard of Snails Records)
  • No Arms And No Friends / Ghost Club (2011, Lynch(ed) Recordings)

With other musicians
  • Trunk (credited as 'Mortis Tobias & Clara Kindle') (2008, with Daniel Clark)

References
  1. Birdengine website., Retrieved 19 September 2010. Archived 28 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Bryan Berge, Stylus magazine, November 2005, p. 68.
  3. Birdengine EP on Bleep website. Retrieved 8 April 2009.
  4. Phonica Records, Dec Newsletter, 2005, p. 14.
  5. Ron Schepper, ‘Birdengine EP Review’, Textura. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  6. Everett True, 'Birdengine – Birdengine EP', Careless Talk Costs Lives, Dec 2005, p. 80.
  7. Birdengine EP Reviews, Benbecula Records website. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
  8. Jason Walnut, Birdengine "I Fed Thee Rabbit Water" (Drift 2007) Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Americana UK website. Retrieved 8 April 2009.
  9. Andy Gill, An Exclusive preview of next months album releases, The Independent website. Retrieved 8 April 2009.
  10. Birdengine, "I Fed Thee Rabbit Water" CD, Drift, 2007.
  11. Lynch(ed) Recordings Archived 14 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine website. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  12. "Discography". A Beard of Snails Records. Archived from the original on 23 January 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  13. "Birdәngine (15/07/11 uncut magazine review of forthcoming...)". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 2012-03-04., Birdengine Blog. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  14. Graham, Ben. "Reviews Birdengine". thequietus.com. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  15. Tilbury, Lawry. "Birdengine Blog". birdengine.co.uk. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  16. Helen Mitchell, Birdengine Live Review, Maverick Magazine, Issue 80: March 2008, p. 94.
  17. Mark Dishman (15 May 2009) The Great Escape: Birdengine, The Basement, Brighton, 14 May, The Argus Newspaper. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
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