Monday, November 16, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009

photo by Shanti Curran
Shanti created this image years ago, altering a photograph in her darkroom, of an image she captured in North Carolina. Her teacher at the time ridiculed the image saying it wasn't photography. It's one of my favorite photos that she has created ~Buck
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Lewiston Maine

photo/art by Shanti Curran
Lewiston is a Mill Town in Maine that came to prominence during the Industrial Revolution. Shanti created this image, that for me, defines this town's industrial past ~Buck
Odetta tribute compilation

Arborea is excited to be a part of the 'Wears the Trousers' curated benefit compilation cd 'Beautiful Star': The Songs of Odetta
released November 30, 2009 (download / limited edition CD)
01 Linda Draper, ‘Sail Away Ladies’
02 Ane Brun, ‘If I Had A Ribbon Bow’
03 Gemma Ray, ‘900 Miles’
04 Anaïs Mitchell, ‘All My Trials’
05 Haunted Stereo, ‘Santy Anno’
06 Madam, ‘Waterboy’
07 Sandy Dillon, ‘Can’t Afford To Lose My Man’
08 Ora Cogan, ‘Motherless Child’
09 Josephine Oniyama, ‘The Gallows Pole’
10 Pepi Ginsberg, ‘Beautiful Star’
11 Society Of Imaginary Friends, ‘Another Man Done Gone’
12 Marissa Nadler, ‘All My Trials’
13 Kelli Ali, ‘All The Pretty Little Horses’
14 Katey Brooks, ‘What A Friend We Have’
15 Liz Durrett, ‘Chilly Winds’
16 Arborea, ‘This Little Light Of Mine’
Visit www.myspace.com/songsofodetta
or http://wearsthetrousers.com/ for more info.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Summer in Maine



Photos by Buck Curran
Much of August was spent at the ocean with our children...taking some time out for ourselves, no music except the wind and the sound of the waves. It was a perfect summer, and this was a perfect memory.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Arborea gets a great write up in the last issue of Performing Songwriter
Husband-and-wife duo Arborea are undoubtedly located on the folkier side of life. And their brand of folk is ethereal, bone-chilling and beautiful all at once. House of Sticks has a very organic feel, as one may imagine simply from perusing some of the song titles - "River and Rapids," "Look Down Fair Moon" and "In the Tall Grass"- and it has the uncanny ability to transport the listener into a vastly different, dreamier world.
~Beth Walker
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Arborea goes to Ireland & London- to play on the BBC
In Dublin, sitting with with a likeness of Patrick Kavanagh
A hearty pint of Guinness after being caught in the rain is just the thing

Here we are at the BBC
The most enchanting place I know...
Friday, May 29, 2009
Leaves of Life


Artwork by Hanna Tuulikki
June 23rd was the official release date for 'Leaves of Life'.
Leaves of Life is the essential collection of songs by some of today’s most creative Indie Folk musicians. This record brings together unique and contemporary artistic voices to create an evocative and stunning collaboration; with all proceeds from the sales of this record going to benefit important relief programs in Africa, and other communities in great need around the world.
Curated and produced by Buck Curran of the Alt-folk duo Arborea, Leaves of Life features 19 exclusive songs by artists Alela Diane, Devendra Banhart, Marissa Nadler and Black Hole Infinity, Fern Knight, Shanti Curran (Arborea), Rio en Medio, Larkin Grimm, Mi and L’au, Starless and Bible Black, Silver Summit, Micah Blue Smaldone, David Garland, Citay, Big Blood, Mica Jones, Eric Carbonara, Ora Cogan, Cursillistas, and Magic Leaves…along with the beautiful art work of musician Hanna Tuulikki. This project hopes to further inspire people around the world to join in vital artistic and social efforts to make a better life for all of us.
In addition the digital release of the compilation will include special bonus tracks by Jozef van Wissem, Laurent Brondel, Denise Dill, and Plains.
To purchase the cd in the U.S. please visit Darla Records
http://darla.com/index.php?fuseaction=e4_ecom.ecom_superitem_detail&item_cat_id=36667
For purchasing in Europe visit here
http://bornerecordings.bigcartel.com/product/various-artists-leaves-of-life
All proceeds from the sale of this record go to the World Food Program!
if you would like more information about the world food program please visit: www.friendsofwfp.org
Please help us get the word out about this record compilation- every cd that sells will help!!!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Black Mountain Road music/film
Monday, March 16, 2009
New songs, New Cd, New Dirty Linen Magazine Feature...

Hello everyone,
Well these past few months have been really busy- so many great things are happening that we hardly have the time to write about it. Our new cd 'House of Sticks' has been out for a few weeks and is already picking up airplay throughout the U.S. and Europe, and is also among the top 50 Best Sellers list at Darla Records, Yay! (Darla is distributing our record in the U.S.) As well, a release date for the 'Leaves of Life' compilation will be announced soon. AND, we just recorded a song to be included on a tribute cd in honor of the legendary Odetta. The Cd is curated by Wears the Trousers Magazine, (http://wearsthetrousers.com/) and the song we recorded was an Arborea take on 'This Little Light of Mine' We are really excited to be a part of this compilation, as we have a deep respect for Odetta and the light she shone on the world. As yet we don't know the release date for that comp, but we'll keep you posted.
Also, Arborea was in Dirty Linen Magazine again, alongside Vetiver, Helena Espvall and Masaki Batoh, Fern Knight and Larkin Grimm in issue #140 (March/April 2009) as part of the Psych Folk Feature Article written by Veteran writer Lahri Bond. Dirty Linen Magazine can be found in every major bookseller throughout the the world....pick up a copy while you can! There are several more project in the works, as well as our non musical interests (local community activism, organic gardening and teaching) we'll write more on all this soon (i hope)
~Shanti and Buck~
(photo by Shanti Curran)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Art from House of Sticks...and album description
Starting today, no, well, tomorrow- it's too cold today- I'm going to start roving the wild outside and photographing again, but it will be a series designed to be a companion to the next album, which we are recording now.



we build shelters to keep us from the sweltering noontime sun...

House of Sticks is the third release by the Indie folk duo Arborea. Following closely on the heels of their 2008 critically acclaimed self-titled record, it is a verdant, personal collection of singles, drawing the best tracks from their highly praised debut cd Wayfaring Summer and several new songs recorded between 2007 and 2008. Arborea also offers up new versions of their songs Dance, Sing, Fight and Beirut.
House of sticks is a continuation of the musical journey of Shanti and Buck Curran, as they conjure scenes of the wilderness and dwelling, and the vibrant people who exist within them. Partly recorded in a Depression Era hunting cabin nestled in the olden hills of western Maine, one can nearly hear the creaking floorboards and smell the wood smoke in the cold night air in the song Look down Fair Moon and sense the flash of wind and water in River and Rapids and On to the Shore. Their song In the Tall Grass is a riveting, intoxicating hum, suggesting a meadow at twilight, the whirl of sound broken only by the intimate promises of Shanti's voice. Other songs were recorded in the parlor of a 160-year-old cottage, resurrecting the bittersweet melancholy of those who have lived and loved within the room in which the songs were made. The title track House of Sticks is an acknowledgment of the transitory conditions that join a family or home and the wild forces of nature and time that can so easily tear it down. Within each song of this collection, Shanti and Buck seem to stop time and exist forever in that perfect, solitary moment.
Musically, Arborea continues to carry on the experimental folk and progressive folk rock tradition that began in the 60's and 70's by artists such as the Pentangle, John Fahey and Sandy Denny. NPR's 'All Songs Considered' producer Robin Hilton describes Shanti's voice as 'hypnotically beautiful' and their songs as 'memorable', and 'incredibly spare and beautiful'. With Shanti's unique rhythmic and melodic banjo style, and the introduction of her harmonium, along with Buck's haunting slide guitar, the duo creates an atmosphere of primitive 'Paris, Texas' Americana meets 'modal visions of the Far East', a sound that continues to captivate audiences worldwide. Arborea have excelled again with this release, yet another recording that establishes them as masters of their craft. This is a group that we will undoubtedly be hearing for decades to come.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Some of my favorite black and white photos
Tonight we will walk in the freshly fallen snow
And talk of ocean kingdoms and bridges built by forgotten armies
and the far-off spring that sings promises of a return...
(all photos taken by me except the live one of us playing at the time of rivers)
Sunday, January 4, 2009
a salutation to the new year
So here we are compressed and expanded light and darkness flowing from our fingers and heads…
Our hands pull out the spirit
A release of sorrow
An acknowledgement of loss
Our hands weep
The secret infinite
We mourn his early departure
But Grace will call on
Those who suffer
A kiss, all of your warmth
Passed to me in my ennui
Oh how you nourish me
And this time we will keep to ourselves
Lovers like none other
Now.
For we have chanced the entire
Roamed as strangers
In the lands
Of this world
And we have loved
Shameless and feral
In rooms foreign and majestic.
Our restless return bears us here
Back to the frigid land that waited
In a certain kind of slumber
Here beneath the wasted trees
In the wild we recoil
Withdraw into our fragile caves cradled
By the earliest hills and pass the time…
Until the sunrise.











