John Martyn

John Martyn belongs to that breed of outsiders, of maverick and unclassifiable singer-songwriters. His work, sharp, profound and influential, holds a prominent place in the history of songwriting, even though it rarely received the recognition it deserved.

Born Iain David McGeachy in London in 1948 and raised between England and Scotland, he spanned four decades of career moving between folk, jazz, blues and electronics, never fully belonging to any one genre.

His recording debut came with "London Conversation" (1967), an album that introduced him as a young hope of the folk revival. But right from the start, his guitar playing – with its uniquely rhythmic, atmospheric approach – and his warm, uneven voice hinted at a more complex expressive urgency. With Beverly Martyn, his partner at the time, he made "Stormbringer!" (1970) and "The Road To Ruin" (1970), two records that began infusing folk with soul sensibility and electric openness.

The turning point came with "Bless The Weather" (1971) and, above all, with "Solid Air" (1973), probably his most celebrated record. Dedicated to his friend Nick Drake, "Solid Air" captures the essence of Martyn's poetics: songs that move slowly and enveloppingly, built on a mix of folk, jazz and blues that seems to dissolve in the creative use of the Echoplex on guitar and in his voice, capable of shifting between whispers and stifled cries. Tracks like "Solid Air", "Go Down Easy" and "May You Never" became emblems of a tormented, but never overly sentimental, intimacy.

With "Inside Out" (1973) Martyn pushed even further, experimenting with more abstract and improvised sounds, while "One World" (1977) – partly recorded on a lake, with water seeping into the sound – anticipated many ambient and dub ideas. His increasingly hybrid approach culminated in "Grace And Danger" (1980), a visceral, biting album born from the end of his relationship with Beverly: tracks like "Sweet Little Mystery" and "Hurt In Your Heart" reveal a songwriter laid bare, raw and vulnerable.

Martyn's private life was marked by excess, addiction and difficulties of every kind. His artistic trajectory saw dizzying highs and dramatic falls, but even in less fortunate periods – as albums like "Glorious Fool" (1981) or "Piece By Piece" (1986) show – his authenticity remained intact. The 90s and 2000s saw Martyn swing between brief flashes of inspiration and increasingly serious health problems, culminating in the loss of a leg and, finally, his death in January 2009.

Before he passed, he received a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio 2: a belated celebration for an artist who always eluded trends and compromise. John Martyn left behind a body of work that is hard to classify but impossible to ignore: a sonic journey that, like flowing water, changes shape without ever losing depth.