Description
"This is a Covid-19 album. I wanted to use this global shutdown as an opportunity to work on a new recording project. But… with the pandemic on, I had no desire to produce an album of new songs with full arrangements and a whole band. New songs are sacred to me. They are precious and rare, and I didn't want to push them into the world with all the covid challenges and isolations to work around. I am a bit neurotic that way.
So, instead of looking forward, I looked backward. For years, I have had friends and fans express their desire to have recordings of my songs being performed solo."
"This was the time to finally take on that project. I called up winner-of-many-regional-awards producer Daniel Ledwell, and proposed that we co-produce a stripped back solo album at his little studio by the lake. I am so glad I did. This is an album that I could not have made without Dan.
With the benefit of Dan's feedback, I began a process of taking the old songs apart and putting them back together again. I wanted to find a bit of new life in the songs. I thought the album would be just voice, piano, and guitar, but through the process of experimentation and exploration, we discovered that we couldn't live without a little bit of auxiliary sound here and there."
"The finished product is still stripped back and minimalist, but served with a bit of extra sauce, including vocals from the fabulous Jenn Grant on Drift Apart.
I had a great time recollecting these old songs. I hope you enjoy listening to these recordings as much I liked making them. Take care of yourself out there".
BIO:
Ben Caplan is both the roar of the hurricane and the eye of the storm. He has an uncanny ability to channel both wild abandon and quiet introspection. Ben released his first studio album in 2011, and has spent the last ten years recording music and performing to ever growing audiences in music clubs and theatres around the world. For the ten year anniversary of his first release, Caplan has recorded a retrospective collection of stripped back re-interpretations of songs from across his catalogue. The album, entitled Recollection, will be released in October of 2021 followed by an extensive European and Canadian tour.
PRESS & QUOTES:
"A NOISY TREASURE" New York Times
Time Out New York
"it is hard to imagine a more apt time for a production with so clear a moral center" - The New Yorker