Hendra

After twenty years in Everything But The Girl, and ten years as a respected DJ and record label boss of Buzzin' Fly, Ben Watt is releasing 'Hendra'. It is his first solo album for over thirty years, released on his own new imprint, Unmade Road through Caroline International. In Ben's words, the album is 'simply a folk-rock record in an electronic age'.

Recorded in London and Berlin, the music is a meeting of worlds: languid folk, distorted rock and fizzing electronics; in part a result of the album's two central collaborators, ex-Suede guitarist, Bernard Butler, and Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson.

'I turned instinctively to Bernard very early on,' says Ben. 'I knew his overdriven, string-bent intensity would be the perfect foil to my own warm open-tuned style. It adds tension to the songs. Ewan has a foot in both my recent worlds. He can do thrumming Berlin techno, but also things of great delicacy and grace. I also wanted his vintage 70s poly-synths as a contrasting colour, and a burnished 3-D sound, which of course both play to his strengths'.

The album also includes one other unexpected stellar camo - Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, who adds plangent slide guitar and backing vocals on 'The Levels'.

'We met by chance in London just before the album', says Ben. 'We didn't know each other. He invited me to hear his demos. I thought he was joking, but two days later he texted me and invited me down to his studio and we got on well. During my album, 'The Levels' seemed like a perfect track for him. I rang him up and he loved the song and he did it the same weekend. Wish everything was that simple sometimes'!