Folktronica musician Ian Wilson belongs to a new class of singer-songwriters who have exchanged backup bands for loop pedals. Using a combination of keyboard instruments and synthesizers, Ian builds complex, atmospheric layers around deeply personal songwriting. And despite defecting from the classical genre years ago, Ian’s piano has never quite lost the accent—you can tell by the sound of it, it’s not from around here. His debut solo LP, This is Water, will be released in May 2012.

This is Water isn’t really about water. Like the David Foster Wallace speech that the title alludes to, water is simply a medium for more elusive messages. The lyrics fixate more on migration, travel, and change—apt themes for an album in which Ian leaves behind the acoustic anchoring of 2008’s The Crater EP for full-on electronic integration. In The Crater’s deft piano and wordplay, the influences of queer music icons Tori Amos or the Magnetic Fields are easily heard. With This is Water, Ian reshapes his songwriting with backbe