King Creosote’s Kenny Anderson has called the collaboration a “soundtrack to a romanticised version of a life lived in a Scottish coastal village“ and without knowing what life in a Scottish coastal village is actually like, I’ll have to take his word for it. But if said life in a Scottish coastal village can be best defined by the occasional rattle of cups on saucer, a courteous exchange or two between waitress and customer and the tickling of piano string by ivory then Diamond Mine captures it rather beautifully.
Instrumentalist Jon Hopkins, fresh from working with the likes of Brian Eno and Coldplay, adds wave after wave of swelling, extraneous keys to a baker’s half-dozen tunes plucked from the very heart strings of King Creosote’s 20 year career.
Intended to be heard as a single experience, Diamond Mine produces a near classical suite of emotion ranging from cracked despair to patched-up euphoria. Whilst for the most part a fairly ambient and desultory affair, tracks like ‘Running on Fumes’ and ‘Bubble’ in particular are a pointedly poignant and melodic as anything released by Anderson over the years and can be enjoyed over and over again in gorgeous isolation.
The best things come in very small packages.