Litany Of Echoes, by James Blackshaw (CD on Tompkins Square)

A Norman Records recommendation (24th July 2008)

Description:	CD on Tompkins Square, back in!	UK ORDERS OVER £50 SHIP FREE!
Format:	CD
Label:	Tompkins Square
Price:	£11.29
Catalogue number:	TSQ1783
Availability:	despatched in 1 working day

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What we say

Rating: ecstatic This record left our Brian feeling ecstatic.

I've been thrusted James Blackshaw's new CD 'Litany of Echoes' to try & decipher for you lot into meaningless words. Elvis Costello once said that writing about music was a pointless exercise & when it comes to describing this man's extraordinary talent the old snipe was dead on. Both Phil & I are big fans so now is the time for me to big him up! Opening with a grand piano piece, slightly foreboding but mercurial, the ivories being thumped hypnotically, gently, rapidly, in a similar manner to his guitar playing before track two opens with some mournful viola like distant trains arcing lonefully across a desert. This is the cue for his spine tingling steel 12 string to enter stage left and from then on I feel like my ears are being taken out for a posh meal. He injects so much warmth and soul into his playing. It could be the pinnacle of contemporary classical folk for all I know, there's not one guitarist in the UK today who caresses his strings in such a spellbinding way as this boy! Initially with the viola swooping eerily as a backdrop, he weaves his magic sound into vast shifting moodscapes that keep you hooked till the very end. His style is very distinctive, his fingers must be possessed (you feel like there's 2-3 guitarists creating this gorgeousness) and he leaves you with a feeling of peace & awe for a long time after you've finished listening. Shout out to Fran Bury for the hugely complimentary viola & violin backing intermittent throughout. She certainly adds some unquantifiable depth to proceedings! Nothing else will quite hit the spot after one of his recordings. If you're already a convert then this is all obvious, however if you've not yet been blessed, this truly is up there with his finest work & an ideal starting point! CD only on Tomkins Square!

What the label says:

"Best Acoustic Guitarist" - Rolling Stone Magazine, "Best of Rock" Issue, April 2008 Initially inspired by the guitarists of the 60's Takoma label to teach himself fingerpicking, London-based musician James Blackshaw writes pieces primarily for solo 12-string guitar that share more in common with the minimalist works of composers such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine, as well as French composers Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, than the blues/raga influence of his peers. Using drones,overtones and repeating patterns alongside a strong inclination for melody, Blackshaw creates instrumental music that is both intelligent, hypnotic and unashamedly sentimental. Blackshaw's previous 2007 album for Tompkins Square,The Cloud Of Unknowing garnered huge acclaim from all corners of the globe from both listeners and critics alike,receiving effusive reviews in Pitchfork,The Wire,The Observer,The Times,Uncut,The New York Times,Rolling Stone,Magnet and Acoustic Guitar,and earning him a slot opening in the UK and US for Jose Gonzalez during fall 2007. The Cloud of Unknowing was also listed as one of the 50 best albums of 2007 by The Wire and Pitchfork. Litany of Echoes, Blackshaw's sixth studio album in five years, shows a more mature, focused and, on the whole, accessible approach to composition. While the album often feels darker and more introspective in nature than on previous releases, many of the songs have a huge-sounding, classical quality to them.With Blackshaw adding some glistening piano work for the first time and Fran Bury returning to play swarms of sweeping string parts for violin and viola, Litany of Echoes is a truly original, affecting and timeless album from a guitarist/composer coming into his own.