Ben Osborn is a British singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist based between Berlin, Germany and Bristol, UK. Fast Awake is Ben’s debut single and it is due for release on 23rd November 2018 via Nonostar Records, the label founded by German experimental violinist and producer Alex Stolze. Fast Awake is a taster for Ben’s debut album, Letters From The Border, due for release via Nonostar in Spring 2019. Letters From The Border was produced and composed by Ben and Alex during a residency at Alex’s studio complex on the German/Polish border in Summer 2018.
Fast Awake has been informed by the music of the many cities where Ben has lived over the years. This includes an echo of the elegiac beauty of Thom Yorke’s solo work which references Ben’s childhood in Oxford; a dubby trip-hop ambience familiar to fans of the Bristol scene, where Ben has composed for the award-winning Fellswoop Theatre Company with French director Bertrand Lesca (Cheek by Jowl, Peter Brooke) since 2010; and a driving kick drum which evokes the classic techno synonymous with Berlin, where Ben is now partly based. Fast Awake is a sophisticatedly woven mix of prepared piano, stuttering percussion and processed strings which blend seamlessly to create a unique and beguiling sound world.
The lyrics of Fast Awake articulate Ben’s feeling of living in a world that is ever shifting, often in an overwhelmingly rapid manner, “Everything’s changing so why can’t you change? Everything’s strange here and you are a stranger”. Fast Awake juxtaposes its themes of disorientation and anxiety with musical material built of complex, shifting harmonies, polyrhythmic beats and Alex Stolze’s shimmering, haunting violin melodies.
Ben Osborn is the latest artist to join the Nonostar roster, which has also seen the release of Alex Stolze’s acclaimed solo albums Mankind Animal and Outermost Edge as well as Solo Collective Part One, the highly praised debut release from the modern classical trio of Alex Stolze with cellist Anne Müller and pianist/producer Sebastian Reynolds. Other Nonostar releases include the Mahajanaka EP by Sebastian Reynolds and the Aracus EP by German producer Qrauer.
Ben's soundtracks and sound designs have won the Cameron Mackintosh Award, the Methuen Drama Emerging Artists Award, the Peter Brooke Empty Space Award and a Manchester Theatre Award. His critically acclaimed libretti have been performed at London’s National Portrait Gallery, the Bristol Proms, BBC Radio 3’s live concert series and the RCM Britten theatre among other prestigious venues. He is a co-founder of and teacher at the Berlin Open Music Lab, a free school for refugee musicians.
