John Bramwell (I Am Kloot)

As the singer in I Am Kloot from 1999 to 2014, John Bramwell achieved a Mercury Prize nomination for 2010’s The Sky At Night, a Top 10 chart position for 2013’s Let It All In, numerous UK and European tours and a triumphant farewell at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with an orchestra in 2014. Now, as a solo artist, he’s travelling a very different path, his stunning new album The Light Fantastic is almost a complete U-turn from his Kloot-days. Darker clouds have been banished, there are strings and four-part harmonies (a warming development, since Kloot never had any backing vocals) and a dozen gloriously exhilarating, beautifully crafted and observed songs about life, humanity, the universe and everything. As John puts it, “It’s been great to find the joy of making music once again. These are the most uplifting songs of my career.”

‘My favourite songwriter of all time’ – Cate Blanchett [who chose Bramwell-penned ‘Proof’ as

her Desert Island Disk on the BBC Radio 4 show]