New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Fever Dream, the new solo album from Ben Watt is released worldwide on April 8 2016 on Watt�s own imprint Unmade Road through Caroline International.
�I told the band I wanted Pentangle meets Crazy Horse," says Watt about the single. �Gradually�s about what can happen to a long ongoing relationship over time; the gradual shifting sands; how love mutates, changes speed; how interior worlds can be obstructive,� Watt says. �I wanted the sound to have a grainy intensity. It�s just four of us in RAK Studio 2, pushing simple instruments � two guitars, double bass, drums � to the max.�
The impressive black and white short was directed by young Welsh director John Jeanes. �John was working on the story of a misunderstanding in a short-term relationship,� according to Watt. �He wondered if I had music that might fit. At the time, I was thinking about making a film for my song Gradually, which looks at misunderstandings in a long-term relationship. I thought the intersection of the two ideas could be interesting.�
You can also stream the single via Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben_watt/gradually
It was in 2014 - after sixteen years and nine albums as songwriter-performer-producer with Tracey Thorn in best-selling duo
Everything But The Girl, a further ten at the helm of his award-winning electronic label Buzzin� Fly, and a radio residency on BBC 6Music - that Watt returned to his roots as a solo singer and songwriter with Hendra, his second album. Arriving thirty-one years after his UK Independent Chart No. 1 debut, it met with wide acclaim at home and abroad for its eloquent lyrics and stripped-back aesthetic; it featured prominently in end-of-year round-ups and pipped Anna Calvi and Blood
Orange to win Best �Difficult� Second Album at the AIM Independent
Music Awards 2014.
Fever
Dream - self-produced at London�s famous RAK Studio 2, and mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering in
Maine - takes Hendra�s sonic template of open-tuned folk-jazz, distorted string-bent rock, and soulful rumination, and adds a fresh grainy intensity. It renews key partnerships with Hendra�s vaunted guitarist-sideman Bernard Butler and engineer Bruno Ellingham, and sprinkles guest vocal cameos from Boston�s dream-folk singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler and Hiss Golden Messenger�s M.C. Taylor.
"At the album�s heart I just wanted to deepen existing relationships," Watt says. "Two years of playing live with Bernard has created a strong bond; the music we make feels spontaneous, ardent, unsentimental. We just went in and did most of it live. Small room, small band. A harder edge. Instruments spilling into each other." The pair are joined by drummer/percussionist and longtime ally
Martin Ditcham (Talk Talk�s
Spirit of Eden) and new double bassist Rex Horan (Laura Marling�s Once I Was an Eagle / Neil Cowley Trio), who in Watt�s words "brilliantly blurs the boundaries between folk, jazz and rock."
Of the new songs, Watt says: "I got back from tour with a few notes for a new book, but life got in the way. Close friends were falling apart, my own relationships were being tested. I found I wanted to capture smaller snapshots about how love shifts over time, what endures, how we cope. And they became songs. Some came out darker and more troubled, others softer and more hopeful. And that then became the album structure. First half heavier, second half lighter. A sense of transformation, rather than just a collection of songs. I hadn�t done that before."
Track List:
1) Gradually
2) Fever
Dream (feat. M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger)
3) Between Two Fires
4) Winter's Eve
5) Women's Company
6) Faces of My Friends
7) Never Goes Away
8) Running With The Front Runners
9) Bricks and Wood
10) New Year of
Grace (feat. Marissa Nadler)
Acclaim for Watt's 2014 release Hendra:
"The songs occupy their own modern spaces with a raging peacefulness." - Rolling Stone
"A low-key relevance ... intimate stories of memories and loss." - LA Times
"Ben Watt is a master of detail and of quietude... Now, with his first solo album in 31 years, he has returned to highly cultured, intimate song craft." - NPR
Twitter: twitter.com/ben_watt
Facebook: facebook.com/benwattmusic
Website: benwatt.com
