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- April 9, 2021
Ben Howard presents an exclusive one-off global live streaming event to celebrate the release of his new album, Collections From The Whiteout, out now via Island Records. Filmed at the iconic Goonhilly Earth Station on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, UK, Ben and his band will perform new album tracks for the first time. This show marks the first band performance since the conclusion of a worldwide tour in January 2019, which culminated in a sold-out four night run at Brixton Academy.
The livestream begins with a long pan into the Goonhilly Earth Station, introducing us with “The Strange Last Flight of Richard Russell” from the new album, where Ben and his band play on a stage in the middle of a grouping of large satellites. Ben sits splayed, cross-legged on a stool playing his electric guitar as if it were his own private jam session that we were invited to peek into through a lens or window. Next, we are pulled into a different scene, an infrared of the satellites and glitched shots of the surrounding landscape; birds and wildflowers.
Beautifully color graded and layered, the film’s visuals embody the calm of Howard’s ambient vocals and instrumental experience, all while evoking meaning and feeling in each track. They took some time to sing about “going to Goonhilly,” barefooted together as they danced on the stage before transitioning to the next track, where Ben rises from his seat and stands alongside his band and taps his feet to the beat, strumming his guitar while calm as ever in demeanor.
Overall, the event filled the atmosphere with a collection embodying the full definition of ease. It was like wrapping oneself in a blanket with a hot beverage and watching the rain fall in early spring, a kind of comfort only found otherwise in plunging into the depths of his sound raw and in real life. While this was a livestream performance through a screen, we captured just a taste of his live presence. Hopefully, soon, we can have the pleasure of witnessing this album in its fullest on tour sometime soon.
Stream Collections from the Whiteout now, available now on all streaming platforms.
