“Mesmerises with quiet complexity…another strange and beautiful record” **** - Mojo

Ben Howard is pleased to share a new track, Sorry Kid, from his forthcoming album, Collections From The Whiteout. The record, his fourth, will be released on 26th March through Island Records. It’s the final track to be shared ahead of the album’s release.

Sorry Kid is loosely inspired by the story of Anna Sorokin, the Russian born German woman who posed as a billionaire heiress and was imprisoned for fraudulent activity in America. Musically, it’s an atmospheric mood-setter that taps into the general aura of Collections From The Whiteout, and is another tantalizing taster to a special record.

Last week, Ben shared details of an exclusive one-off global live stream event to celebrate the release of the new record.

Filmed at the iconic Goonhilly Earth Station on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, UK, Ben and his band will perform new album tracks for the first time. This show marks the first band performance since the conclusion of a worldwide tour in January 2019, which culminated in a sold-out four night run at Brixton Academy.

The film will be streamed as live on 8th April across different time zones.

Stream #1, UK & Europe (Global Premiere): Thursday 8th April – LONDON (8pm BST), PARIS (9pm CET)
Stream #2, East Coast North America & South America: Thursday 8th April – NEW YORK (8PM EDT)
Stream #3, West Coast North America & Central America: Thursday 8th April - LA (8PM PDT)
Stream #4, Australasia & South East Asia: Friday 9th April - TOKYO/SYDNEY (7PM JST / 8PM AEST)

Tickets are now on general sale via Ticketmaster/Universe.

As previously announced, Ben returns to the live arena in September for his first live shows since four consecutive sold-out nights at Brixton Academy back in January 2019. The pair of Royal Festival Hall (18th and 19th September) sold out instantly.

Collections From The Whiteout heralds the first time Ben has opened the door to collaboration, drafting in The National’s Aaron Dessner on production (a recent Grammy winner for his work with Taylor Swift), and a team of players from the likes of Big Thief, This Is The Kit, and drummer/producer Yussef Dayes. Strings were orchestrated by Bon Iver/Laura Marling collaborator Rob Moose.

Collections From The Whiteout has an immediately breezier tone than Ben’s last record, whilst losing none of the experimental tendencies that made Noonday Dream so compelling.

The subject matter, previously shrouded in obfuscation, takes a scrapbook approach to Ben’s lyricism. Mostly based on snippets of radio news or headline scrolling, he’s let his imagination take those snapshots to wild and remote places, creating stories within stories. Characters are formed, histories are inferred. It’s beautifully random, and makes for an engrossing whole.