When you listen to the love songs of LA-based Bedouine, you will be reminded of Karen Dalton's world-wise voice or the breathy seduction of Minnie Riperton's vocals, the easy cool of French ye-ye singers, and the poetry of Joan Baez. Her folk is nomadic, wandering across time and space, and on the likes of new song "Dizzy" meander into danceable jams. On first discovery you may ask whether they're dated to 2019, or whether you've uncovered some forgotten classic. It makes sense that singer-songwriter Azniv Korkejian's arrival – both musically and personally – on her second record has been influenced by her own wanderlust, displacement, and curiosity. 

The 12-songs on Bird Songs of a Killjoy contain several references to birds. It's a soundtrack to Spring blossom, to warm air on skin, to the concept of possibility. Amazingly, despite the successes since her debut release, Bird Songs of a Killjoy rejects any pressures to be some kind of grand evolution from before. When her self-titled debut came out in the summer of 2017, Azniv was entirely unknown, and wasn't necessarily looking to change that. The album she wrote in her free time while dealing with some emotional trauma and locking herself away in her house, was an exercise in diarizing, in expression without expectations. Some of the songs on this sophomore effort were from that same time period of fruitful creativity. She also continued her creative partnership with Gus Seyffert (Beck, Norah Jones) who produced them in his studio.

This is more than a mere collection of songs, and for that reason, includes a reprise of one song – "When You're Gone" – and features re-occurring musical motifs and hidden tracks.