Gothic-Cabaret Duo Charming Disaster tour in celebration of new album

Brooklyn-based goth-cabaret folk duo Charming Disaster will be undertaking a U.S. tour in celebration of their fifth album Super Natural History (dates at bottom of this release). The new album is a musical cabinet of curiosities, featuring songs inspired by both the natural world and the metaphysical realm; the cover art itself is composed of curios and oddities collected on their travels or gifted to them by fans. The album was produced by band members Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris, half the tracks recorded at Figure 8 in Brooklyn, NY, the rest at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, MD with the very last song being a home recording. Super Natural History will be released on CD, as a 12-inch colored vinyl LP and on all digital platforms.

The Brooklyn-based Dark Folk duo Charming Disaster will be following up their 2022 album, Our Lady of Radium, with the release of Super Natural History arriving on colored vinyl LP and digitally on March 3rd. The album was created alongside an extra-special tarot deck drawing on their 60 songs released so far and they will also be celebrating with a release show on March 4th.

The new collection takes two subjects that are near and dear to the hearts of both Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris and combines them artfully into an exploration of wonder. Along the way, we meet wild and wonderful things like monsters, poisonous plants, giant manta rays, and poisonous pigments. Charming Disaster have always operated at the intersection of the occult, the folkloric, and the love of amateur science, but this time around they make sure audiences can trace the open-minded approach that brings a magical feeling to following our human curiosity. I spoke with Charming Disaster about their experience of making Super Natural History drawing on their own fascinations.

Hannah Means-Shannon: I know that in some ways the songs on Super Natural History bring together both elements of science and elements of occultism, but I also feel like this is very natural territory for you, particularly in using storyteeling. What brought you to the decision to make that combination a little more explicit for this album?

Ellia Bisker: I feel like that’s our home base, really, focusing on stories and how we tell them. And yes, the iconography of arcane and occult mysticism has always been part of our shared vocabulary. [Ellia shows me the newly pressed vinyl edition of the album by video] We have the vinyl in hand and we made these really pretty printed liner notes. [Ellia shows me some late medieval style illustrations that look alchemical.]

Make no mistake, have no illusion. Fears that have made their homes in every shadow that surrounds you be they cast before you upon the broken sidewalk or lurk in the perimeters of your very soul, exerting their weight on your weary bones, those fears are always coming to get you. It’s nothing personal, it’s their job. Not to, umm, fear though, there are a host of ways to deal with them. You can put on your Freudian slippers and, with the help of a well-paid guide, go shuffling about your cluttered past, hauling out the shadow-casting rubbish as you go; you can quiver under the coverlet like a bowl of jelly in their inevitable presence until they get bored with you and, for maybe a moment or two, slink away; you can blithely ignore them like they’re the uncool kids in your subconscious and go about pretending that everything’s fine while also pretending that everyone’s not noticing that everything in fact is not fine not even close (and/or just think you’re an asshole which is – probably? – worse). Or…OR…you can do as Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris, the duo at the heart of the curiously bewitching Charming Disaster, do: don’t simply face those fears but turn them and their shifty accomplices – superstition, the unknown, all that is darkly mysterious – into playmates, into comrades in the creative sphere. All art, after all, is a battle against fear, and in fact without that particular four-letter F-word art would be chaff, a bagatelle of flimsy aspiration, a patina of dressing akin to Victorian manners and yes, you guessed it, that last phrase is meant to steer us toward the project at hand.

For the length of their eleven year existence, Charming Disaster – discovered then covered by SEM when last album Our Lady of Radium arrived – have more or less unrolled and spread before them a well-worn map of the psyche’s, shall we say, less salubrious corners, chosen a destination and, ever intrepid and never tremulous as is their way, plotted a path to the heart of that particular darkness, or weirdness, or delight depending on your spiritual leanings. Here then, on Super Natural History, the usual arsenal of varied and appropriate sound-making devices at their command, the duo pursue their goth-skewered ‘pop with a traditional folkish bent’ – you’ll hear ukulele, glockenspiel, piano, et al – with a decidedly wry (if not at times slightly awry) sepulchral grace. The result has never proven anything less than arresting in ways as spiritual as they are deeply aesthetic and this latest, self-released three-three-twenty-three, is certainly no exception.

Where to begin but at the beginning and that is, with little shock, a song called “Monsters,” clad in that gently dark tension that is bound to result when the at-first-impression innocuous-sounding veers into, well, monstrous (if, y’know, loving) desire. And really this is kind of Charming Disaster’s thing, luring you in with an effortless sway while lyrics that have you going ‘Wait. What?’ (“can’t help what we hunger for/with appetites of carnivore,” for example, and we’re not talking top sirloin here) cause a quick double-take wherein the fact the track’s called what it’s called fully sinks in with an oh-yeah-that’s-right just before you fall back in to its sweet, damn near innocent embrace. In this current volume – we’ve come to view each new Charming Disaster album as a new chapter to be devoured in The Great Book of Darkly Wistful Esoterica – the pair venture further still into the curious netherlands with that nimble and knowing innocence that is their trademark, engaging these often grim thematics with a canny wonder.

Charming Disaster is the duo of Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris, plus additional friends on various instruments as needed. They call themselves a “goth-folk” duo, and it’s an apt description, though I would add the word “pop” in there, as well. The songs are inspired by the stories of Edward Gorie and others, revealing an obsession with the macabre and mysterious. Song titles such as “Monsters,” “Grimoire,” “Bat Song,” and “Disembodied Head” cement their place as purveyors of horror. The music ranges from delicate folk to solid pop to show-tune-like, complete with horns and sound effects. “Grimoire,” in particular, sounds like it could come from a stage production of a show about witches. The jazzy horns and tapitty tap of the percussion are fun, as are the lyrics about a particular witch from Africa. A grimoire, for those who don’t know, is a book of spells. “Disembodied Head” is notable for having hints of garage rock influence, but lighter and more lithe. The more pop-centered tracks are light and quirky, and fine enough, but where Charming Disaster excel is in those more folk-oriented songs. Songs like “Bat Song,” with quiet delicate acoustic strings, the distant trumpet, and tight vocal harmonies, are just gorgeous. And “Paris Green,” with its vaguely ethnic folk quality and magical lyrics is fascinating, particularly when the harmonizing trumpets come in at the end. “Wrong Way Home, which closes the album, is the most straightforward folk tune of the album, and the delicate acoustic plucking and harmonized vocals are very pretty. This record is certainly charming. A disaster? Not at all.

New York Gothic Folk duo, Charming Disaster, zoomed in for an interview to discuss their upcoming album, Supernatural History as well as what they’re about as a band. Charming Disaster is a two-piece band, composed of Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris. Their style of music combines traditional elements of folk music, with dark and macabre themes.

The duo’s latest release unites the worlds of magic and science with ten songs that explore subjects like witchcraft, monsters, and the underworld alongside bats, plants, poisons, and parasites. Super Natural History is an alchemical experiment of sorts—magic and science may seem like contradictory concepts, but for Charming Disaster they are opposite sides of the same coin: alternate ways to see the world and consider its mysteries.

The album features an array of talented collaborators. Four tracks were recorded in 2021 at Figure 8 in Brooklyn, NY engineered by Hillary Johnson with bassist Bob Smith and drummer Rob Garcia joining Bisker and Morris who provided their trademark interlocking vocal harmonies, guitar, and ukulele. Five songs were tracked at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, MD with longtime Charming Disaster collaborator, Don Godwin contributing bass, drums, and horns as well as engineering and mixing. Charming Disaster cut the final track at home by themselves, in a nod to 2022’s Our Lady of Radium, which they had to record in isolation due to the COVID pandemic.

In conjunction with Super Natural History, Charming Disaster is releasing an “oracle deck” of cards similar to a Tarot deck. The duo has long used Tarot cards to determine the course of their live performances to introduce an element of chance.

The Charming Disaster Oracle Deck features cards with original illustrations inspired by each of the 60 songs Charming Disaster has released to date commissioned from more than two dozen artists. The limited-edition deck is intended for use in cartomancy or as a visual interpretation of Charming Disaster’s music.

Charming Disaster was formed by Bisker and Morris in 2012, inspired by the gothic humor of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, the murder ballads of the American Folk tradition, and the dramatic flair of the cabaret. Together the duo write songs that tell stories, using two voices to explore dark narratives and characters with a playfully macabre sensibility.

On their critically acclaimed albums Love, Crime & Other Trouble (2015), Cautionary Tales (2017), and SPELLS + RITUALS (2019), Charming Disaster explored death, crime, myth, magic, folklore, and the occult. On their last album, Our Lady of Radium (2022), they turned their attention to science and explored the life and discoveries of pioneering scientist Marie Curie.

In their live performances, they combine vocal harmonies and clever lyrics with ukulele, guitar, and virtuosic foot percussion, drawing listeners into a haunting, offbeat universe of paranormal romance, con artists, and ancient gods, playing out against a backdrop of nightclubs, car chases, circus tents, the afterlife, and beyond with great theatricality.

Charming Disaster’s music has been featured on the spooky hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale. They have opened for legendary cello-rock ensemble Rasputina, Goth icon Voltaire, Amanda Palmer’s punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls.

Their concerts have captivated audiences across the United States. They have appeared alongside storytellers, comedians, fire eaters, puppets, burlesque artists, poets, and circus performers. Recent appearances have included Joe’s Pub in Manhattan, Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery, the Rochester Fringe Festival, Philadelphia’s Science History Institute, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA, Cleveland’s Wizbang Circus Theatre, and the Coney Island Sideshow stage as well as sundry bars, art galleries, bookstores and libraries.

MAR 10 FRI – Apple Tree Inn @ 7:30pm- The Fremonts -Lenox, MA

MAR 11 SAT – The Red Lion Inn @ 7:00pm – The Fremonts – Stockbridge, MA

MAR 12 SUN – Secret-ish Charming Disaster Concert in Boston @ 7:00pm – Boston, MA, United States

MAR 23 THU – The Pink Door @ 7:00pm – Seattle, WA

MAR 24 FRI – Belltown Yacht Club @ 8:00pm – Seattle, WA

MAR 25 SAT – The Midnight PDX @ 9:00pm – Jet Black PearlStrange and the Familiars – Portland, OR

MAR 26 SUN – The Brewstation and Coast Fork Feed @ 5:30pm – Cottage Grove, OR

MAR 28 TUE – Dynasty Vintage and Oracle Room @ 7:00pm – Ashland, OR

MAR 29 WED – Naked Lounge @ 7:30pm – Chico, CA

MAR 30 THU – Amado’s @ 8:00pm – The Secret Emchy SocietyThe Slow Poisoner – San Francisco, CA

MAR 31 FRI – Puffer’s of Pismo @ 7:00pm – Pismo Beach, CA

APR 1 SAT – Backyard Concert @ 8:00pm – Artichoke – Los Angeles, CA