A Bridge of Starlings is the stunning new single from Ben Osborn: a British songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist based between Berlin, Germany and Bristol, UK. The track is due for release on 8th February 2019 on Nonostar Records, the label founded by German experimental violinist and producer Alex Stolze. The track is a taster for Ben’s debut album, Letters From The Border, due for release via Nonostar in Spring 2019, and follows recent debut single Fast Awake (November 2018). Letters From The Border was produced and composed by Ben with Alex during a residency at Alex’s remote, custom-built studio on the German/Polish border in Summer 2018.
Inspired in part by his studies of the lamenting poetry of the Psalms, A Bridge of Starlings takes the motif of the ‘break-up song’ and twists it into a new, surreal shape. The lyrics depict a dreamy, hungover cityscape in which the smallest details are loaded with memory and emotion, perfectly complemented by a musical team assembled especially for the track. Alex Stolze’s spacious production imbues the track with rhythmic drive and coats it in psychedelic atmospheres, singer Bethany Roberts’ vocals cut through with crystal clarity, while Michael Bleach’s found-sound beats tangle around the synths and prepared piano.
Instrumental B-side Psalm 22 showcases the unique prepared piano sound Alex and Ben have crafted in the Nonostar studio. The composition has a bittersweet simplicity reminiscent of Schuhmann’s Kinderszenen, its stark minimal texture decorated with lush washes of synthesiser harmonies.
Ben is the latest artist to join the Nonostar roster, which has also seen the release of Alex Stolze’s acclaimed solo albums Mankind Animal and Outermost Edge as well as Solo Collective Part One, the highly praised debut release from the modern classical trio of Alex Stolze with cellist Anne Müller and pianist/producer Sebastian Reynolds. Other Nonostar releases include the Mahajanaka EP by Sebastian Reynolds and the Aracus EP by German producer Qrauer.
Ben’s soundtracks and sound designs have won the Cameron Mackintosh Award, the Methuen Drama Emerging Artists Award, the Peter Brooke Empty Space Award and a Manchester Theatre Award. His critically acclaimed libretti have been performed at London’s National Portrait Gallery, the Bristol Proms, BBC Radio 3’s live concert series and the RCM Britten theatre among other prestigious venues. He is a co-founder of and teacher at the Berlin Open Music Lab, a free school for refugee musicians.
Find out more here http://ben-osborn.com/
Photo Credit: Andrea Huyoff