Slow Vessels

Album review

Slow Vessels is a companion piece to Centres, the astonishing 2016 full-length by Canadian composer Ian William Craig. That album applied his innovative tape manipulation methods to his most heartfelt (and lyrical) songs yet, resulting in some of his most resonant sentiments as well as his most mind-boggling productions. On Slow Vessels, he revisits some of the highlights from Centres, but with much more of an emphasis on the songs themselves rather than the atmospherics. Slow Vessels is intimate and stripped-down, but it's not quite "unplugged," nor does it just sound like a set of demos or alternate takes. He still incorporates drifting, decaying tapes into the songs, but they're far less prominent than his haunting, heart-stopping vocals and sparse acoustic guitar or piano accompaniment. The songs were recorded in one take while Craig was on tour in Europe, and they sound a little loose and spontaneous, but still extremely direct and controlled. While not as overwhelming as Craig's main albums, Slow Vessels is still a quietly powerful release that puts a spotlight on the raw emotional power of his work.
© Paul Simpson /TiVo