José González VAZ Hafen Innsbruck, 12.11.'15

It’s the quiet ones we should watch, they always say. Which is particularly astute

advice right now, when loud, constant self-declaration and saturated “brand” visibility

have become the norm. But above the babble and brightness, some voices will

always speak quiet volumes -– with calm eloquence and the kind of certitude that

comes from valuing the playing out, not just the prize. Sweden’s José González is

just such a voice. He first charmed his way into the UK’s earshot via the murmurous

and elegant, classically finger-picked folk pop of his 2005 album, Veneer, which has

since sold over a staggering 430, 000 copies in UK alone. Two years later came In

Our Nature, a further exploration of José’s influences (Argentinian Folklore, the ’60s

US folk tradition and the British pastoral folk-pop style of the same era), on which he

resisted the temptation to beef up his alluringly introvert aesthetic. The albums made

the UK Top 10 and Top 20 respectively. It may be seven years since he released a

solo record, but José has been anything but idle in that time. He’s delivered two

albums with the band Junip, his more fulsome, electronic-edged, pop project and

has toured with both the Berlin/Göteborg String Theory orchestra (in 2011), coperforming

11 reworking’s of his songs, Sidi Touré and played with Malian desert

blues troupe Tinariwen (both in 2012). In 2013, Hollywood came calling when Ben

Stiller commissioned José to work with Theodore Shapiro on the soundtrack to his

remake of ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ and most recently, he’s contributed his

version of ‘This is How We Walk On the Moon’ to the Red Hot charity compilation

honouring Arthur Russell. Community and collaboration are obviously satisfying in

their own ways, but now José is again stepping centre stage solo, with Vestiges &

Claws. Conceived as the natural third part in an acoustic trilogy, Vestiges &

Claws is a(nother) hushed and delicate solo set that forefronts the artist and

guitarist’s compellingly intimate vocal style and intricate playing technique, but it’s

often strikingly rhythmic in nature and cohere’s perfectly, with hand claps and taps on

the body of his instrument underlining the songs’ mantric rise-and-fall pattern, while

elsewhere, over-dubbed guitar parts and multi-tracked vocal harmonies entwine

to sweetly immersive effect. The title refers to both cultural practices and biological

features that survive despite having lost their original function, and to currently useful

tools, ie the “claws” of modern life.