Brighton bard Maximilian signs with Crafting Room Recordings and debuts expansive comeback single

We like to say of some writers that they’re able to cram an entire novel into a single line. When it comes to Maximilian, there’s an album contained within a single song.

His latest single after a long-by-DIY-artist-standards break and first for Brighton’s beloved label Crafting Room Recordings is cold, hard proof of this. But “Long Time Gone” is also warm, soft proof – the track, which Maximilian calls his “little magnum opus,” does it all. From a sleepy Elliott Smithian murmur, the six-minute epic gradually waxes and wanes up to a fizzing climax before trotting back down with some shuffling drums and rusty, let-the-sun-in harmonica playing. All the while, the solo artist’s creaking, sighing guitar has his back.

“Long Time Gone” was produced by another Brighton MVP, Bobby Smyth (Hutch, Van Zon, Fliptop Head), and is a marked glow-up from Maximilian’s previous work. It arrives a year on from his debut album, Surrender, which earned him heaps of local support and the Green Man Rising award while leaving headroom to evolve his sound (this is his first time experimenting with synths and harmonicas, for one thing).

Maximilian will be supporting the single release with a UK tour, which kicks off 21 May in Brighton and concludes at The Old Blue Last in London on 27 May. After that, who knows – but it's gonna be good.