Arthur Russell: Picture of Bunny Rabbit - A wonderfully beguiling introduction to an immortal artist

If you listen to broadcasters and tastemakers of the calibre of John Kelly, Donal Dineen, Mary Anne Hobbs or just about anyone on NTS, chances are you’ve already heard music by the American composer, cellist and singer Arthur Russell.

Russell died in 1992, aged 40. In the 1970s he had moved from his native Iowa to New York and immersed himself in Lower Manhattan’s avant-garde, collaborating with Talking Heads and briefly dating Allen Ginsburg. His magnum opus, The World of Echo, from 1986, became the work that defined his career, which was tragically cut short by Aids-related illnesses.

There has already been a large number of posthumous Arthur Russell releases, as he left behind a vast archive of unreleased material. Rough Trade and Audika have mined the vaults again for this collection of recordings, which were committed to tape in and around the time of the making of The World of Echo.

Picture of Bunny Rabbit is another beautifully understated but bravely adventurous suite of songs and instrumentals. If you know nothing of Russell’s strange and fascinating world, which exists somewhere between folk, avant-pop, ambient, jazz and classical, this is a wonderfully gentle and beguiling introduction to one of music’s immortals.