James Blackshaw

Born in London in 1981, James Blackshaw has distinguished himself through masterful command of the 12-string guitar. Frequently aligned with a lineage of British acoustic guitar innovators, he has drawn comparisons to Bert Jansch, Davy Graham, Robbie Basho, John Fahey, Glenn Jones, Jack Rose, and Leo Kottke, yet his modal approach—centered on improvisation over predetermined themes—remains distinctly personal. Early in his career he issued several limited-edition CD-R recordings, among them Celeste and Lost Prayers and Motionless Dancers in 2004, Sunshrine in 2005, and the live album Waking Into Sleep in 2006. Important Records brought out O True Believers in 2006; afterward Blackshaw signed with Tompkins Square Records, which released The Cloud of Unknowing in 2007 and began reissuing earlier material, including Celeste and Sunshrine, both of which appeared again in 2008. That same year Tompkins Square also issued Litany of Echoes, another collection of original pieces.

All Is Falling, released in 2010, marked the first occasion Blackshaw recorded with electric 12-string guitar in a studio setting. Two years later Important Records presented Love Is the Plan, The Plan Is Death, an album on which he played nylon-string guitar alongside piano, Hammond B-3 organ, and vibraphone. Early in 2013 he joined pianist and composer Lubomyr Melnyk for the collaborative album Watchers. Later that year Yann Tiersen invited him to mark the centenary of Louis Feuillade’s silent film series Fantômas; Blackshaw composed a score for the fifth and final installment, Le Faux Magistrat, which received its premiere at the Théâtre de Châtelet in Paris on Halloween. He performed the 75-minute work with additional musicians that included drummer Simon Scott of Slowdive, and Tompkins Square issued a commercial recording of the event in July 2014.

Blackshaw shifted course once more with Summoning Suns, his first project to feature his own vocals on five of the seven tracks; Important Records released the album in March 2015.