Birdengine
Lawry Joseph Tilbury, also known as Birdengine, is an English musician, producer and singer-songwriter . 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. Another EP "Early 4-track recordings" (2006) was released on Benbecula, with several reviewers noting Tilbury's "natural talent for story telling". 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, and deadpan humour "There's not likely to be a more arresting opening couplet to an album this year": 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 and A Beard of Snails Records 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.", and by The Quietus as "Outsider Music, riddled with themes of alienation and a sense of not belonging; an outcast even among the freaks". 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. 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", having "strange and compelling beauty" and a "bizarre, yet deeply likeable tone".