When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 3 April 2013
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

We’re excited to be helping Manchester’s own Olympian launch their latest EP, Back to the Great Lakes.

Olympian is the latest musical project from Manchester-based singer-songwriter Aron Robinson. After spending his formative years growing up in Manchester and Canada, Aron has been involved in various musical projects in and around the Manchester music scene over the past few years, gradually honing his sound and culminating in the breakthrough success of Olympian.

Olympian’s first collection of recordings emerged in the spring of 2012 when they released a two-track demo entitled Change Will Come. This spring, Olympian release their debut EP, Back to the Great Lakes; a collection of songs that Robinson describes as being ‘a very personal record that deals with loss and not wanting to let go but learning that you have to’.

Lyrically, Olympian deal with those universal themes of love and loss that we can all readily relate to while, musically, Robinson’s weathered and intimate vocals are juxtaposed against sparse, shimmering arrangements to create a sound that reaches an ethereal plane.

Indeed, the emotion is seemingly stitched into Robinson’s sleeve in the same manner in which it is weaved into the delicate, acoustic guitar-backed melodies that he writes and it is this emotion that serves to create a body of work that is wholly pure and flows from the deepest and darkest chamber of the heart.

Having recently received airplay on BBC Radio and supported Rebekka Karijord on tour, Olympian have gained fans including I Am Kloot’s John Bramwell and Damon Gough (Badly Drawn Boy). Olympian now seem destined to co-habit the musical arena that Bramwell’s own band and Elbow have successfully made their mark on, albeit, in the case of Olympian, the listener is presented with a much more introspective kind of grandeur.

Back to the Great Lakes is available digitally from 15 March, with the physical release following on 1 April.

Support comes from Hawker Reunion, an alt-folk band who write songs through the rain of Manchester. With leanings towards M Ward, Phosphorescent and Will Oldham, the duo started as a recording project and over recent months have begun turning themselves to live performance, already supporting acts such as The Wave Pictures and Monument Valley. They’ll play tonight as a full band.

Opening the show will be Race To The Sea, which is in fact the moniker of Dan Peacock. He reverberates and loops his music, with a hint of shoegaze, to produce a sound we’d compare to Shack, and Doves at their most pensive.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from the bar, Common (both no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook | Last.fm