The Folklore Sessions is the free new EP by dream-pop singer-songwriter Kramies, featuring acoustic versions of songs from his two acclaimed Hidden Shoal EPs The European and The Wooden Heart, plus the beautiful piano talents of Grant Wilson (from Syfy's Ghost Hunters).
While his previous EPs mined a wonderfully rich seam of atmospheric yet epic songcraft, The Folklore Sessions demonstrates that Kramies’ songwriting is just as stunning without the undeniable production talents of Jason Lytle (Grandaddy) and Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils). With just his voice and acoustic guitar, plus languid piano backing by Grant Wilson (of Ghost Hunters TV show fame), these stripped-back versions of The European’s ‘Antiquarian Days’, The Wooden Heart’s title track and ‘Sea Otter Cottage’ are given vivid new life through Kramies’ genuinely affecting performances.
“It’s rare to find dream-pop that resolves with such assured optimism, in which you can sense experience shifting into its proper place... Kramies seems to have mastered the talent of simply breathing it into shape” – Misfit City on single and title track ‘The Wooden Heart’
“Pressed upon celestial arcs that usher in distant memories of the mercurial melodic musings of Slowdive and Chapterhouse at their most fragile and angelic peaks, ‘The Wooden Heart’ is wrapped longingly in snow bursting showers of dream dipped porcelain signatures so intricately woven, airless and frail that you fear they will shatter just by your closeness in earshot of them” – The Sunday Experience on ‘The Wooden Heart’
“marries wafting synth textures and an acoustic guitar bedrock to well-honed direct songcraft, making every cut a keeper... evokes John Lennon at his most reflective. Unlike some more well-known peddlers of similar aesthetic pedigree, Mr. Windt’s grand sweeping gestures are never empty, and his hooks are never cheap. It’s no wonder that with each subsequent listen, I find myself enjoying The European more and more” – PopMatters on The European EP
Check out "The European" and "The Wooden Heart" at
store.hiddenshoal.com