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Ben Frost releases album, The Centre Cannot Hold
Ben Frost releases his 5th studio album recorded with Steve Albini and starts touring a stunning new Audio Visual live show in collaboration with MFO.
An exercise in limitation and chromatic saturation, The Centre Cannot Hold is an attempt at transcribing a spectrum of glowing ultramarine into sound. Recorded over ten days by Steve Albini in Chicago, the music exists not in space, but in a space; it is a document of an event, of a room, and of the composer within it. It is music that is not fully controlled and appears to be anxiously, often violently competing against its creator.
Pitchfork gives the album a 7.8 rating; “These pieces, including the centerpiece “Eurydice’s Heel,” are downright awe-inspiring, like witnessing firsthand an apocalyptic barrage fall from the heavens”.
Ben Frost also released seven-track EP, Threshold of Faith, last month. Pitchforkdescribed the title track as “groaning harmonies all stack up into a geologic crescendo that extends into infinity” while The 405 describes it as “scorching and beautiful”.
“… sonic shades cloak and flicker with resonant depth, ingesting recent orchestral pursuits for something colossal”
– NPR review of Threshold Of FaithBEN FROST RELEASES NEW TRACK, IONIA
BEN FROST has shared a new track ahead of the release of his fifth studio album, The Centre Cannot Hold, out on Mute on 29 September 2017.
Listen to ‘Ionia’ here: http://po.st/BFIoniaYT. The track follows the release of ‘Threshold Of Faith’, and will be available on streaming services from 13 September. Ionia and a remix from JLIN will be available on 12” on 22 September, and the remix will be available digitally on 15 September 2017.
The Centre Cannot Hold was recorded over ten days by Steve Albini in Chicago. The music exists not in space, but in a space; it is a document of an event, of a room, and of the composer within it. It is music that is not fully controlled and appears to be anxiously, often violently competing against its creator.
In collaborating with Albini, Frost chooses a new immediacy and raw directness. As an artist whose command of sound design lies at the heart of his practice, by placing himself primarily in the role of live performer and handing the studio recording process over to Albini, Frost continues pursuit of Theseus’ paradox; the question of whether a ship restored by replacing every single part remains the same ship.
Watch the video for Threshold Of Faith, the opening cut from the new album, a new collaboration shot in the winter of 2016 in Reykjavík, Iceland with conceptual documentary photographer Richard Mosse and Cinematographer Trevor Tweeten: http://po.st/BFThresholdVideo
“… colossal” NPR / “…compelling” Echoes & Dust / “…gargantuan” Pitchfork
“…engrossing… from first hammer blow to last squeak” – The 405
“…shows off a more compositionally direct Frost, focusing on heaviosity and purer sound by getting in Steve Albini to capture live sessions direct to tape” – The WireBen Frost announces new album
The Centre Cannot Hold, Ben’s fifth studio album is out on September 29th on Mute Records.
Watch the arresting visuals for ‘Threshold Of Faith,’ the opening cut from the new album below.