ALBUM REVIEWS

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Ian William Craig Red Sun Through Smoke

Fat Cat Records

Canadian composer, classically trained singer, sound designer and experimentalist Ian William Craig has made a collection of stunningly beautiful albums over the last seven years. Highly innovative and always emotionally charged, his records have blended choral, ambient and noise influences together into improvised and fascinating soundscapes and textures that seem to have deep, lasting impacts on those that sink into his imagined worlds. 18 months on from his last solo release and is perhaps his most impressive and emotionally powerful work to date. Recorded in a two-week spell while Craig was in a small house with his parents as his grandfather died and wild fires raged through his British Columbia homeland – and all the while finding time to fall in love – this record has a burning intensity as it deals with a bewildering mix of emotions. The result is a record that’s stripped back and raw. Loss, grieving, longing, anxieties of the future, love, memories and the random nature of life are expressed with such beauty and depth using only the piano, Craig’s distinctive voice, a shortwave radio set, several modified tape decks and a bunch of tape loops. The textures are often smudged and grainy, once again exploring the notions of decay that Craig so excels at. An engaging, personal album that shows Ian William Craig at his expressive and heartfelt best.