Minor Pieces – The Heavy Steps of Dreaming LP FatCat Records

‘The Heavy Steps Of Dreaming’ is the brilliant debut album from Vancouver-based Minor Pieces, a new songwriting partnership comprising acclaimed singer/composer Ian William Craig and newcomer Missy Donaldson. Retaining some of the textural play and experimentation of Ian’s solo material while channeling it squarely within the domain of tangible songwriting, the pair use guitar, modified tape decks, bass and synths to fashion deeply-felt songs with their beautifully matched male/ female vocals standing resolutely centre-stage. A classically-trained vocalist, Ian has released ten solo albums since 2011, receiving increasingly widespread critical praise for his work. Peers like Max Richter and Sigur Rós have become fans. Mojo described him as a “singer manipulating analogue recordings of his own voice to conjure up bewitching traceries of phantom arias, born from warped tape and sonic decay… destroying his own work, yet creating something more elegiac and profound in the process”; Rolling Stone pinned his sound as “like a collaboration between between Bon Iver and William Basinski”; whilst Pitchfork marvelled at the “vast ocean of beauty within his music.” Finding a coherent and beautifully measured equilibrium between the male and female; between crystalline clarity and faltering obfuscation; the anchoring of pop hooks and the experimental pull of immersive textural density, the album is tender, graceful and emotionally powerful. It’s a record that manages to pull off a kind of easy intimacy, that has great depth to withstand and reward repeat listening. ‘The Heavy Steps Of Dreaming’ is an immeasurably deep, warm, grainy, honest and utterly brilliant debut album. A place you’ll want to linger in and return to.