Best known for his smash hit Heartbeats, Jose Gonzalez has announced that he will release his first solo album in seven years this February. The singer's classically finger-picked folk pop 2005 album Veneer sold over 430, 000 copies in the UK alone and went double platinum in Ireland, before follow-up In Our Nature also charted in the Top 20. In seven years period since, José has released two albums with the band Junip, his more fulsome, electronic-edged, pop project and was commissioned by Ben Stiller to work with Theodore Shapiro on the soundtrack to his remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Vestiges & Claws will be released on 20 February is another hushed and delicate solo set that forefronts the artist and guitarist’s compellingly intimate vocal style and intricate playing technique. The album was recorded almost entirely by José and self-produced, mostly in his Gothenburg home, using computer plug-ins to achieve a warm, analogue sound. He says that he prefers working alone, mainly for artistic reasons. “There were a couple of things that enabled me to complete this record: one was curiosity, to be able to play percussion and do a lot of harmonies and also to produce and mix the album; the other was aesthetics. I love to listen to Arthur Russell and Shuggie Otis, to music that has been done mostly by one person in their solitary state.” Vestiges & Claws can be pre-ordered here.