It’s been a few months since Ilyas Ahmed’s I Am All Your Own was released by Immune Recordings, but it’s still well worth sharing for those who may have missed out. From the luminescent opening chords, Ahmed’s vocals and twelve-string journeys impress on the senses like living watercolors. He pulls off a delicate balancing act between restrained singer-songwriter material and sparse but indispensable experimentation, the haunting and the intimate. It’s an exquisite representation of some of the new directions folk is taking this millennium, providing some much needed life to a genre that’s been taking a lot of flack every since Mumford and Sons happened.

The instrumentation is relatively sparse, but like a true poet Ahmed gives rise to rich atmosphere from minimal arrangements, his hushed falsetto and tenor standing out amidst his melancholic yet purposeful guitar. The melody on the second track, “Come On,” is a cascade of clouds, slowing at points to form deep basins of inner-space before moving along in a hushed hurry. The following track, “All You Say,” builds slowly until an electric guitar that feels like a UFO appearing above the trees at night drops in for a vitalizing visit. The album also has two untitled drone interludes that function as a celestial skeleton for the billows of starry flesh that are the other six tracks. All in all, it’s a listening experience of scrumptious and relaxing beauty.

I Am All Your Own is available in various format’s over here.