Ben Howard releases his fifth studio album, ‘Is It?’ on the 16th June 2023 through Island Records.
In the Summer of 2022, Ben and his band recorded ‘Is It?’ over 10 days in the Le Manoir de Léon studios, nestled between Bordeaux and Biarritz, in the South of France.
The album is introduced by ‘Couldn’t Make It Up’.
Produced by Bullion (Westerman, Nilüfer Yanya, Orlando Weeks), ‘Couldn’t Make It Up’ is the first track of that ten-song record, exploring music after Ben experienced two mini strokes (TIAs). ‘Is it?’ is a lush, sonically splintered album which captures Howard working through those moments of seismic shift.
Ben has to say -
“I found it impossible not to dwell on the absurdity of it, that with one tiny clot, one can lose all faculties. It really ate into the writing of the record.”
In March 2022, Ben Howard was sat in his garden when he found himself unable to think clearly, form sentences or speak for almost an hour. A month later, after the same thing happened again, the Ivor Novello Award-winning singer-songwriter learned he’d suffered two TIAs (transient ischemic attacks - known as mini-strokes). “It was out of the blue,” says the 35 year-old. “It was a confusing time.”
That June, after a month of inconclusive hospital tests Howard and his band returned to Le Manoir de Léon, where they’d previously worked on his acclaimed third album, ‘Noonday Dream’.
This is Ben’s first new music since the release of ‘Collections From The Whiteout’ in 2021 which debuted at the top of the UK album charts, his second number one record to date.
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