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.