BirdWorld – Nurture (Album Review)

BirdWorld is a musical partnership between Gregor Riddell and Adam Teixeira, based in London/Oslo. The duo first met during their respective Banff Centre for the Arts Creative Residencies, where they began improvising and developing field recordings together. In combination with a setup of cello, kit, kalimbas, and hand percussion, their manipulation of electronic textures forms an integral part of their sound.

In autumn 2019, BirdWorld released their debut UNDA on Focused Silence, followed in 2021 by reworks featuring artists including Qasim Naqvi, Francesca Ter-Berg, Olefonken, and Robert Ames. However, since then, BirdWorld started developing material for their second album, Nurture, remotely throughout the pandemic, a time when they also both became fathers. This experience shaped a new approach to their collaboration, resulting in an increasingly condensed and lyrical musical language.

With Nurture now here, let’s take a look at what we’ve got as a result of their sophisticated collaboration.

As soon as you dive into the record, you are instantly immersed in the sound of maturity and development, where the hard-sounding instrumental—what seems to be a violin—sorrowfully introduces you to the complexities of the sound the duo is presenting. The band easily uses and implements some of the most echoed instrumentals throughout the tracklist.

I feel as if Nurture should be treated as an album experience rather than a track-by-track performance. It presents a brooding atmosphere with intricate and frequently layered instrumentals that captivate the listener with a serene ambiance. It’s truly hard to describe what feelings the duo aims to evoke with such instrumental execution, but to me, it represented a contemplative yet minimalistic sound that immerses the listener in a mournful atmosphere.

With guitars that give bursts of raw energy and are almost haunting, they are bolstered by drums that feel occasionally punchy, gaining the necessary momentum for crescendos. During the album, you might certainly feel the Scandinavian sound influence—cold yet warm and ambiguous. This slow build-up feels almost hypnotic, especially on tracks like “Oisin Part 1,” which captures a sense of surreality with a slight touch of psychedelia. Another highlight is the band’s occasional use of shoegaze influences, which complexifies the sound even more with echoes and monumental textures.

The whole album is primarily instrument-driven, except for the final track, which may feel unpolished but is exceptionally sincere. It adds a touch of humanization to the record after the dominance of instrumental execution. These imperfections enhance the track’s rawness and minimalism, adding another layer to the album’s soundscape.

Nurture balances power and grace in direct yet minimalistic terms. With shimmering, cascading instrumentals, the atmosphere is immersive and introspective, even without words. Its wistful sound doesn’t feel subtle and instead represents a straightforward approach that mostly works.

Score/Good. To sum it up, Nurture provides a cinematic experience that may not resonate with everyone but is memorable for its steady, introspective atmosphere and illumination of maturity

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