Piers Faccini

Born in England to Anglo-Italian parents, Piers Faccini is a soulful and expressive singer/songwriter whose music fuses folk, acoustic blues, and West African textures. When he was five years old his family moved to France. After completing his studies at the prestigious King's College of Our Lady of Eton, Faccini began establishing himself on the London music scene in 1997 through the group Charley Marlowe, whose members were Faccini, spoken word artist Francesca Beard, guitarist Lucas Suarez, and percussionist Frank Byng. Charley Marlowe cultivated a devoted audience on London's acoustic music circuit thanks to their singular blend of poetry and music, yet Faccini, who had simultaneously been composing scores for British television, found the band's format restrictive and exited in 2001 to focus on solo writing and performance. His first solo album, Leave No Trace, appeared in 2004 on the French Bleu Electric label and prompted extensive touring. Faccini then secured an American recording contract with Everloving Records and shared European bills with like-minded U.S. musicians Ben Harper and Jack Johnson. Producer J.P. Plunier, who had previously worked with both Harper and Johnson, oversaw Faccini's second album, Tearing Sky, released in 2006 and featuring backing vocals from Harper plus contributions from several members of his band the Innocent Criminals. Two Grains of Sand followed in 2009, My Wilderness in 2011, and Between Dogs and Wolves in 2013, the last issued on Faccini's own Beating Drum label. In March 2014 he released the EP Of Dogs and Wolves, containing four outtakes from the album of the same name, among them the duet "Wait by the Water" with Jasser Haj Youssef. The Desert Songs EP, an intimate suite recorded with indie rock and alt-country singer/songwriter Dawn Landes, arrived in January 2016 and was succeeded in October of that year by the new studio album I Dreamed an Island. Outside his musical work, Faccini also practices as a visual artist and has exhibited his landscape and portrait paintings.