David Benjamin Blower
In A Room
David Benjamin Blower's 2019 LP, We Really Existed and We Really Did This, was one of OUTSIDELEFT's most critically acclaimed LPs of the Year. We loved it so much, we started our own live music night (OUTSIDELEFT NIGHT OUT) just to see him play. The album wrestled with the amazing things people are doing now, all of which might result in our own extinction. David says, "At first you're horrified and desperate and anguished. And then you laugh and cry at it and feel the sheer wonder of the fact that we ever came to exist in the first place."
One year on, David sat down in a room with two microphones and the guitar someone rescued from a skip for him, and recorded the whole piece again in its barest form. David says the new recording is, "Raw, stark and vulnerable."
It includes all the readings, which make up an essential part of the live performance, which are not on any of the versions available online (they only found their way onto the CDs). Its only be available David's bandcamp page, and only for a limited time: until Good Friday. And it's not streaming anywhere else.
So, stripped back David Benjamin Blower, give me good reasons why you did this, why now?
David Benjamin Blower: Why did I do this now?
Good Reason #1
"Because when I wrote the piece I first imagined it as a bare bones acoustic experience. It's a tower of words and the less musical scaffolding the better. But it's difficult to record a spare album well. Nothing to hide behind. And I didn’t know the work well enough a year ago."
Good Reason #2
"Because I recorded the original version last winter and I often get a sort of annual resonance of the previous lap around the sun, that makes me want to sit with it and ponder the journey in between."
Good Reason #3
"Because its a piece about ecological catastrophe. Right now we want to howl loudly at the staggering and terrible things we’re capable of. But we also want to sit, small and quiet, in a room, and gently come to terms with our smallness and quietness in the face of the drama of natural history, which make human history look very small indeed."
Good Reason #4
"Because the tax bill went out and I needed money..."
David Benjamin Blower, In A Room is available now on Bandcamp and nowhere else until Good Friday...
Essential Info
Listen to In A Room
David's Website
OUTSIDELEFT Night Out with David Benjamin Blower
