Birdengine

Birdengine / Lawry Tilbury
Tilbury in a haunted house, Puddletown 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Lawry Joseph Tilbury
Born	1980 Dorset, England
Origin	United Kingdom
Genres	Experimental, freak folk, pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, musician,
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	2005 (2005)— present
Labels	Benbecula Records, Drift Records, Bleeding Heart Records, Thee Evil Twin
Website	birdengine.co.uk
Notable instruments
Classical guitar, Casio SK-5

Lawry Joseph Tilbury (born 1980), also known as Birdengine, is an English musician and singer-songwriter from Winterbourne Steepleton, Dorset.

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. An animated music video for the track Thoughts of A Falling Glass Man was created by BAFTA winning production company Sherbet.

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":

He has been noted in his local newspaper for his distinct combination of unusual falsetto harmonies, 2009 saw Tilbury self-release, then quickly disappear, an EP of new material titled Black Dictaphone through the Birdengine MySpace page, though re-worked versions of some songs would eventually appear on later releases.

Tilbury spent the next year at producer David Ringland's home studio in Hove, 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 Lynch(ed) Recording 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".

In a 2012 interview Tilbury stated he is working on "what will likely be my last album as Birdengine", indicating a collaborative project to be a new beginning.