Ben Chatwin

The other day, I was discussing with my good old friend the constant fluctuation of the music release pendulum that I follow, oscillating between my absolutely favourite artists and labels [where sometimes it can feel like I am inside an echo chamber] and chasing the latest and new [where sometimes I am guided by marketing trends of PR]. As usual, the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle, and I will still chart my own course. Today is an immensely gorgeous example of the former, where I am eagerly celebrating a brand new release from my favourite artist – Ben Chatwin. And this is a perfect model of balance, where Chatwin does not simply sharpen his skills but projects them another leap forward, creating another new style that one day, I’m sure, will stand out as prime. If you peruse these pages you’ll be sure to find nearly every release from Ben Chatwin going back to 2015, and then, once again, even further in time, to 2008, when he was recording under another named project. But with his latest releases on Village Green, the last of which was The Hum (2020), Chatwin managed to evoke the voice of the inorganic, blending melodic beauty with intense sonics and tense, edgy rhythms.

For his new album, titled Verdigris, Chatwin set up his own imprint, Disinter, to take us down his forward-thinking evolution of sound. This single is out tomorrow, and the entire album is out on March 22nd. “Obsessed with the physicality of sound, Chatwin utilises modular synthesis to imbue life and instability into the recordings. Pushing his exploration of analogue textures, audio is passed through an arsenal of compressors and saturators to build layers of grit and grime around this new set of tactile compositions.” So yes, I’m a massive fan of his compositions, and yes, I have even secured a coveted remix of his for an upcoming single I intend to release any day now. More on that later, but back to the track!

‘Dolmen’ came about after I thought the album was finished… I kept hearing a cycling motif in 5/4 time so I sat down at a synth one weekend to try it out. Within a few hours the track was fully formed, built around multiple layers of arpeggios. The addition of mellotron and samples of choral music took the piece somewhere else – for me it seems to exist in a sort of limbo state somewhere between science fiction and nostalgia.

— Ben Chatwin

Once again, the full album will be released on March 22, 2024, available on all of your favourite digital platforms, a 4-panel digisleeve compact disc (as pictured above) and a fierce-looking transparent dark-blue cassette tape with white on-body printing supplied in transparent fluorescent green case with Obi Strips. This you gotta have! While you’re here, be sure also to check out the official video by Morgan Beringer for the first single, “Collapsing In Feedback”, which you can play on YouTube. An enthusiastic applause for his very new label!