A poignant blend of chamber music and drone set to an ocean of emotional energies, "Till Margaretha" is a standout from Funeral Folk, a recent collaboration by Swedish experimental artists Maria W Horn, on synths and pipe organ, and violinist Sara Parkman. The opening shimmer of acoustic instrumentation here evokes earlier, side-stream traditionalists — in particular the spellbinding music of early-'70s U.K. group Comus — at least until Horn and Parkman set the cathedral ablaze with a blast of metallic drone, peeling away the steeples and revealing the pair's true intentions through a vortex of cascading vocals, strings and keyboards.
With "Till Margaretha" and Funeral Folk in total, the pair generate music born from lamentation and rites of loss. Like their peers Kali Malone and Anna von Hausswolff, the Horn and Parkman are fearless in making grandiose, vulnerable music.
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