“Based in Brooklyn,” we wrote back in October, “Ben Van Bonn has made a name combining the traditional and the contemporary, taking a classic American fingerpicked style and reaching in new directions.” For debut album Myth of the Middle Rung, this saw the musician and songwriter combine earthy folk with something more digital, resulting in something both layered and controlled. New record Further Than Thought leans further into this latter sensibility, stripping back the Ben Van Bonn sound to its fundamentals of guitar and electric bass to produce something more intentional and evocative than ever. A style of folk which owes a debt to the likes of Elizabeth Cotten, John Fahey and Robbie Basho, yet exists entirely as its own singular vision.
Serving as “a timely reminder that less is often more,” first single ‘Great West Arch‘ evoked the Californian coast through an intricate fingerpicked sound, and new track ‘To Scotty’s Bay’ doubles down on the style to transport the audience to the bay of the title. The sound’s tidal ebb and flow is so fluid and detailed the listener would be forgiven for assuming a certain level of improvisation informing the song, though in truth everything here is built with the utmost attention. A landscape built note by note, with Ben Van Bonn unafraid to break conventions to best bring into contours into relief.