Gary Stewart - Year and a Day EP

There's something enchantingly captivating about Gary Stewart's vein of folk, captured here on this four track EP with apt professionalism. There's the achingly sad minimalism of Eve Master - caresses of strings underscoring a slow lament of tear-racked emotion. But there's room for versatility here too, Stewart flips the formula on its head on Green Master, an up-beat romp of sunny May-day proportions that'll come as sweet nectar to any whose appetite is whetted by the likes of Mumford & Sons. Closing number Blue Master is the most accomplished track here, bringing all the component elements of Stewart's sound together in one singularly charming moment. The Year and a Day EP excels in its natural unfusiness, content to do what it does without overagrandising gimmicks or strained politicism. Instead, it's a contently contained hymn of the earth and the air, an EP born of organic processes, and resonating with all the subtle power that might entail.

Released: 18th June.