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With the release of Lou Barlow’s EMOH, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Matt Sweeney's LP and now a new James Yorkston single, it looks like Domino's New Wave of Folk is here.

Shipwreckers by James Yorkston and The Athletes

With the release of Lou Barlow’s very gentle album EMOH, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s collaboration with Matt Sweeney and now a new James Yorkston single, you could be forgiven for thinking the New Wave of Folk is here for ‘05 – and it’s on Domino!

"Yorkston has reached a state of grace that writers can spend for ever trying to attain: songs that sound not so much written as carefully retrieved from your own subconscious played with an intuition bordering upon telepathy. What more could you ask for? 5/5." - Peter Paphides - The Times.

James Yorkston and The Athletes release the first single from their acclaimed sophomore album, Just Beyond the River – last year’s long-player that London listing magazine Time Out called "another masterpiece". The single version of Shipwreckers comes in the form of a new mix of the album track, produced by the renowned pair of Bacon and Quarmby.

It’s a storming story of lovers entwined, watching the lights of the shipwrecks out at sea, whose movements magnify and mirror the lovers’ secret meeting. Painterly in its style, it is a detail of the intimacy and closeness, and the underlying threat involved in a stolen moment of love. And at just under 3 minutes, the tale is told by James and The Athletes without a note or word too many!

Nosiest...Repetitive

The b-side (in old money) of the CD single: The ‘A’ of the Oboe is a beautiful hymnal instrumental for banjo and accordion, pitched somewhere between the mood and texture of a Pet Sounds vocal-less cut, and Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works. And the demo recording of Heron is no less ‘ambient’ for its use of vocals; another song whose strength is its warming mood as much as its tightly woven lyrical declaration of love. Exclusive to the vinyl 7" B-side, however, the track The Route to the Harmonium, is the nosiest, most repetitive thing James has released since the Four-Tet remix of The Lang Toun. It sounds like Can, or Faust, jamming with an angry wasp. Honestly. I guess you’ll just have to hear it. Turn it up, when you do.

Here’s what some of the rest of the critics said about Just Beyond the River when it was released last year:

“an intelligent and beautifully crafted set of songs from a musician and lyricist of rare depth” 5/5 - Record Collector.

"Blackly enticing" 4/5 - Uncut.

"A furious chronicler of home truths" - The Guardian

"James Yorkston has delivered no less than a masterpiece" - The Telegraph.

"Yorkston's second outing is a thing of rare acoustic beauty" - The Observer.

"A relaxing masterpiece that could just become a timeless classic" - The Fly.

James Yorkston’s skill is in his poised combination of a subtle and almost invisible songwriting, and modest, ‘barely-there’ performances, the depth of which can be felt with each successive listen. This is music to return and return to again and again.

The full length album by James Yorkston and The Athletes: Just Beyond the River is still available, as a CD and LP. Shipwreckers the single is out now on CD – featuring The ‘A’ of the Oboe and a demo version of Heron, in addition to the lead track - and vinyl 7”, which has The Route to the Harmonium on the flip side. All four recordings are issued on Domino Recordings.

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