Ian William Craig - Centres (2016)

'Centres' is the stunning new album from Vancouver-based vocalist / composer Ian William Craig, and his first release for FatCat's pioneering 130701 imprint. 'Centres' is actually Ian's ninth full length album. His last two full lengths ('A Turn of Breath', 2014; and 'Cradle for the Wanting', 2015) were issued physically on the excellent Californian label, Recital Program and received glowing press and placements in numerous critics' end of year lists (including Mojo / NY Times / Rolling Stone). The Guardian marvelled how "to be both wildly experimental and fantastically listenable is a skill that precious few people possess, but Craig has it - truly brilliant", whilst Mojo remarked on "a blissfully disquieting choral suite, moving from the corroded cries of counter-tenor ghosts to a kind of abstract Buckleyesque hearbreak, as if some lovelorn romantic troubadour had been summoned forth from the recording of seances on old shellac 78s. "The signing of Craig marks something of a departure for 130701. Whilst elements recall the visceral, home-baked immersion of fellow Canadian outfit Set Fire To Flames (who kick-started the imprint 15 years ago), the hands-on customisation of Hauschka's prepared piano or the tape-grain bleed of Max Richter, this is the first album we have ever released to substantially feature the voice and the song at its centre.