Based out of Vancouver, bowed guitar player and trumpeter C. Diab creates music that conjures the beauty of the landscapes and awe-inspiring wilderness of his childhood home in the Vancouver Island town of Port Hardy. Born Caton Diab in 1986, Ottawa, Canada, he is a friend and collaborator of acclaimed vocalist / composer Ian William Craig (FatCat / 130701 Records), who has done engineering work on No Perfect Wave, C. Diab’s first album proper. 2016’s ‘No Perfect Wave’ was released to much critical acclaim, appearing in several end of year lists including Drowned In Sound who acknowledged Craig’s presence as “something reflected in the strength of feeling that C. Diab has conjured up.”

Having gained critical acclaim with the release of his debut album ‘No Perfect Wave’ (2016) and his collaborative works with Ian William Craig, C. Diab is pleased to announce the release of his sophomore album ‘Exit Rumination’, on 30th March via Injazero Records.

‘Exit Rumination’ is a deeply personal record, and was composed during a particularly challenging time for its creator. Diab says of the process; “it became a deep sonic exorcism which took on its own face during the recording process. The final product can be understood as various stages of a path towards acceptance, and the struggle to maintain sanity in the face of life’s most unforgiving themes, love and death.”

‘Exit Rumination’ is packed with the skilful guitar and trumpet playing and tape manipulation that made ‘No Perfect Wave’ so special but comes from a darker, more devastating place. It is a hypnotic, meditative, mesmerizing affair which immerses the listener even deeper in his universe.

C. Diab describes his work as ‘Cascadian guitar music’. Where Appalachian Guitar Music has a well-known musical identity, his elegant cello-bowed guitar compositions have a quality just as rare and powerful, captured with a meditative and swooping grace that’s as longing and expressive as solo cello, droning as leftfield ambient music, moving as film score and cathartic as religious song. He names the style in reference to the biogeographical (but not political) territory of the Cascade mountain region which is – just as his music – mountainous, moody, mesmeric, and filled with breathtaking majesty. Listeners of Colin Stetson, will enjoy C. Diab’s virtuosic instrumental technique; fans of Tim Hecker and Richard Skelton will find interest in the glacial slow-motion textures; here is a soul-bearing and intimate tenderness in the same way as Arthur Russell; John Fahey and Robbie Basho scholars will appreciate his nods to the dark underworld of North American folk music. But, as with the best records, the result is much greater than these parts.

“This album, as ever, showcases C. Diab’s skilful use of tape manipulation and his experimentations in both guitar and trumpet.” – The Quietus

“Patient, hauntingly beautiful music” – XLR8R

“Soaring bowed melodies…Wonderfully affecting trumpet playing…mired in ancient grainy tape sound. Folk-inflected epic musics sound totally fresh in C. Diab’s hands” – The Wire

“Mesmerising, meditative drone-raag” – Nick Luscombe, BBC Radio 3