King Creosote & Jon Hopkins (GB)

What could a folk bard possibly have in common with a musician steeped in experimental electronic music? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Kenny Anderson, a Scottish singer/songwriter who performs under the name King Creosote, and Jon Hopkins, the London-based producer who’s worked with such artists as Imogen Heap, Brian Eno, and Coldplay, came out with a collaborative album titled Diamond Mine on Domino Records in the spring of 2011. The LP is a breathtaking combination of King Creosote’s subtle hymns and Hopkin’s field recordings and minimal beats. Their prestigious Mercury Award nomination and appearances on many of last year’s Top 10 British album lists thus comes as no surprise.