Ben Kunder – Searching For The Stranger
Format: CD – LP – Digital
Label: Comino Music
Releasedatum: 29 mei 2020
Toronto-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ben Kunder has emerged as one of the most electrifying musicians on the Canadian indie-folk scene, gaining attention for his captivating lyrics and smooth, soulful vocals. He’s toured internationally, garnering critical acclaim along the way and extensive radio airplay from international outlets including BBC Radio, RTE (Ireland) and CBC Music (Canada).
‘Searching For The Stranger’, Ben’s vivid follow-up to 2018’s universally celebrated ‘Better Human’, expands on his ability to soundtrack both the ordinary and the extraordinary in luminous detail.
‘Searching For The Stranger’ unveils something else about Ben: his most authentic voice. That emergence ensures the 10 original new songs gathered on the album reflect a human – alternately and collectively an acclaimed musician, father of two sons, world traveller, cautious optimist – fully in control of his narrative and confident enough to let it roll; the results are positively electrifying, finding Kunder boldly exploring the outer limits of his creativity.
Known for expertly navigating that rarefied space between elegiac folk and accessible pop and crafting beautifully articulate deeply personal ballads, Searching For The Stranger reveals Kunder’s most honest and authentic work to date. Co-produced with Aaron Goldstein at Baldwin Street Sound and Chris Stringer at Union Sound Company, the album features a marquee of illustrious, returning guests, including singer Carleigh Aikins, Wintersleep drummer Loel Campbell, and Arkells keyboardist Anthony Carone.
The sweeping and redolent ‘Berlin’, the first single and opening track is the album’s lynchpin, but does not define it. Witness the softly propulsive, undulating, and decidedly sunnier ‘Stranger’, the album’s second single, buoyed by what sounds like a harmonic squadron of vocalists, though really only Kunder, Aikins and overdubbing.
“I have really discovered my voice as an artist and more than ever before, I am trusting myself and my weirdness. Searching For The Stranger is not only about searching for something or someone different but about accepting that the strange and weird can be beautiful, too.”
Tracks:
01. Berlin
02. Stranger
03. Ghost
04. Year
05. Breakers
06. Lunenburg
07. Seul
08. Colours
09. Tornado
10. Spring
All songs by Ben Kunder except ‘Ghost’ by Ben Kunder & Maia Davies & ‘Tornado’ by Ben Kunder, Maia Davies & Tom West
Website: Ben Kunder
