Minor Pieces

A collaboration between composer/vocalist Ian William Craig and singer/songwriter Missy Donaldson, Minor Pieces combine the contrasting qualities of articulate acoustic song and the damaged atmospheres of Craig's processed tape experiments. Parts indie folk, vocal music, and experimental electronics, their otherworldly debut, The Heavy Steps of Dreaming, saw release in 2019. Craig met Donaldson, a music therapist, through mutual friends in 2013, though they only began making music together around the turn of 2017. The two Canadians booked their first performance without having even rehearsed, and continued to play low-profile shows in the Vancouver area over the next couple years as they worked on combining their different approaches to music. In the meantime, Craig released the solo album Durbē in late 2017. Minor Pieces recorded their first album -- Donaldson's first of any kind -- over the course of eight days in a Vancouver studio in mid-2018. Craig then issued a set of previously recorded experimental ambient material, Thresholder, that November on FatCat Records imprint 130701. Featuring both Donaldson and Craig, a classically trained singer, on vocals, Minor Pieces' The Heavy Steps of Dreaming arrived on FatCat in October 2019. ~ Marcy Donelson