[TR24][OF] Ben Walker - Echo - 2019 (Pop, Folk, Singer-Songwriter)

Ben Walker was recently hailed as one of the best acoustic guitarists in the world right now by Total Guitar magazine. A versatile composer as well as a celebrated instrumentalist, his passion is putting old jewels in new settings. After six critically acclaimed albums and a BBC Folk Award as a duo with Josienne Clarke and more than fifty records as a producer of other artists, Ben Walker's signature style has been sought out from punk to Proms, from Rough Trade to the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In divided times, Echo reflects centuries-old words back to us for today, reimagined in new music. Examining traces of the past to help make sense of an uncertain present, Ben found that some things never grow old; the cycles of life, the sound of the land and the water, stories of loss of innocence, of pride and shame, hope and fear. Drawing on field recordings from the EFDSS library, the newly established Sussex Tradition archive and lyrics from the 18th and 19th centuries, with composition influenced by contemporary classical and electronic music and Ben's trademark fingerstyle. Echo combines original instrumental pieces, traditional songs and poems set to music, "there's a touch of hauntology to it all – the shadows of the past are always there in the future, whether we like it or not. Weirdly, I've found a little solace in the fact that some things come and go, and some things stay." The album also features Bella Hardy, Kitty MacFarlane, JinWoo, Laura Hockehull, Hazel Askew, Laura Ward, Thom Ashworth