Having made a name as keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist of indie rock titans The War on Drugs, Robbie Bennett showed a different dimension to his work in 2020 with his debut solo full-length Permanent World, an album full of rich, personal compositions which gesture towards an almost New Age sense of transportation. This December, Bennett is following up this release with not one but two new records, Steloken and Circulation, with American Dreams to further expand this style.
“Both albums are crafted from layered arrangements of piano and various keyboards and synths which sound decidedly curious in their approach,” as we wrote in a preview back in October, “designed, as [Bennett] puts it, to feel like you are ‘walking through an unfamiliar place you want to keep exploring and never have to circle back to where you started.'” Because while these are two distinct records and function as such, they originated as a single album and work on that level too, with a sense of linearity running through the pair to maintain a sense of progression. “Steloken offer[s] warm and fond soundscapes before Circulation pushes deeper into a more improvised, abstract state,” as we continued, “the twin releases playing like a real statement of intent from an artist looking to wide the frame of their work.”
The fact the title of Steloken was taken from his daughter’s mispronunciation of skeleton gives an indication of the headspace Bennett tried to create for the release. “I want to get back to that innocent place where the language is unwritten, technique is just kinetic energy in your body, and the art is fluid and devoid of self-consciousness,” he explains. “It’s the same reason people seek out a first-take recording, before you really ‘know’ a song. I’ve watched my kids paint and play piano. At first, you marvel at how abstract and simple everything is. Then it’s like Eve biting into the apple. Suddenly you need to draw shapes, form chords, understand harmony. Your art gets worse for a long time before you can find your way back to that original freedom. I’m trying to unplug the conscious mind and release the muscle memories and all of the feelings.”
Ahead of the full release next month, Robbie Bennett has shared a new pair of singles ‘Footprints in the Ash’ and ‘Vermiculite’, and this sense of discovery is abundantly clear in both. ‘Vermiculite’ marks Bennett’s maiden experimentation with a vocoder, offering a newfound sense of freedom which seems an intrinsic part of the release. “Removing the conventional limits of my voice felt incredibly freeing,” he explains. “I was suddenly unburdened by all the inhibitions and expectations I’d developed around my own singing voice.” On the other hand, ‘Footprints in the Ash’ offers discovery in a different form, the track stemming from Bennett’s time out in the wilderness of the Pine Barrens, specifically the juxtaposition of burnt land and colourful new growth. The result teases another key strand of the project, with the compositions notable for the fact that Bennett leaves in both ends of the emotional spectrum, as eager to communicate the grey and black as he is the brilliant colour.
Steloken and Circulation will both be released on the 11th December via American Dreams. Pre-order both from the Robbie Bennett Bandcamp page.
Main photo by Kait Privitera