Ben Seretan "Allora" LP

Name: Ben Seretan "Allora" LP
Brand: Tiny Engines
SKU: TE209V1
Price: 22.0 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

£22.00 GBP

Tax included. calculated at checkout.

SKU: TE209V1

Tiny Engines

LP - Bone/Orange (Mailorder exc) ltd 200
🚛 Sold Out

Vinyl picture is just a mock. Final product may look different.
If you prefer vinyl to be shipped outside the LP jacket please leave a note when you place your order.

Tracklisting:

01. New Air
02. Climb The Ladder
03. Ben
04. Small Things
05. Jubilation Blues
06. Free
07. Every Morning is A

1st Pressing (Vinyl):
200 Orange/Bone (mailorder exclusive)
300 Highlighter Yellow

There's an album of Ben Seretan's that he's only ever referred to as "my insane Italy record." That's how he first pitched it to me in my minivan in the fall of 2019 — and that's how he calls my memory back to it now, telling me to begin the story there. I will: Ben and I were on tour together, two solo acts, mano a mano. We were rolling through the suburban Connecticut night, McDonald's curdling in our stomachs, our laughter and the windshield defogger in a gentle tug-of-war. We joked that this tour was only the second time we'd ever hung out, but the joke was true. I'd met Ben only once before and it was enough to suspect I'd have a good time doing so again. I didn't know the half — after only a few shows in, I'd already seen the boundlessness of Ben's capacity to surprise me. No two sets of his were the same — one night was an ecstatic halestorm of high-school virtuoso level guitar shredding, the next an almost sacred devotion to solely harmonium and voice. Several would feature the audience following Ben's instructions to call in to the same extension on his ambient music hotline, their speakerphones rippling over one another in a mosaic of sound. Each destroyed my expectations, left me in wonder. So: an "insane Italy record" sounded about right to me.

The Italy record is called Allora, an expressive Venetian catchall that literally translates to "at that time." A catch in my throat forms when Google Translate shows me this text in English. I know that this record was made in 2019, elbowing up to a twilight of innocence before the world that followed. I have images in my mind of its context: Ben and his band (bassist Nico Hedley and drummer Dan Knishkowy, both formidable songwriters in their own right) sweating in the Mediterranean summer, smoking cigarettes on trains, biting into bacchanalian fruit — textbook revelry, ridiculously rose-colored. And I know that this record was made mere weeks after the death of sculptor Devra Freelander, a deeply cherished friend within Ben's NYC world, whose harmonies are an indelible thread woven through Ben's 2020 album Youth Pastoral. Ben's entire community demanded that he go through with their planned tour to Italy even amidst their vivid grief — there were flights booked, people waiting, and no doubt their friend would have wanted them to.

I'm so glad they did. Allora is a record that couldn't have been made at any other time under any other circumstances. It is a document that is aware of its own capturing, understanding of its own value beyond the work itself. But the work is unbelievably good — as I pressed play on Allora's opener "New Air," I zoomed with relish back to hearing for the first time in my driver's seat, Ben's broadening smile in my peripheral vision every time the recording indulged in singing me with another riff. I wish everyone could experience this record that way — listening to the sound-analog of your friend's spirit while your friend, directly beside you, reacts to their reflected memory. I can't extract the way I hear this record from that feeling, but I can tell you it's self-evident. The utter chaos this record exudes, its peaks, its valleys — they are all there for a reason.

Ben’s history in Italy is as ridiculous and colorful as the record it eventually produced. It’s a country where, for one or two album cycles, he enjoyed an unexpected but delightful following — cue an image of Ben sweating in Rome while hauling LPs over cobblestones in a wheeled laundry basket, swimming in the ocean at 5am and eating focaccia straight out of the oven, or him playing "Kiss" at an Italian wedding the week Prince died. Fast forward to 2019, when he's asked to play a festival in Switzerland that would pay for a band to come over with him. They oblige, book a tour around the festival, land in Europe, and the tour falls apart. Instead of playing shows, the band heads to a stone farmhouse in the hills above Venice with legendary psych-rocker and producer Matt Bordin and burns Allora to tape in three days.

Three days. The furor of this record makes that fact seem appropriate, but the details and grace notes that fill the corners make it feel impossible. It isn't surprising if you know the clip at which Ben works — his catalog is massive and it doesn't stop coming. For example, there's a 24-hour drone record (My Life's Work), his weekly project of writing over a thousand words and publishing an accompanying track (My Big Break), and a set of improvisational piano pieces duetting with the white-noise roar of Appalachian nature (Cicada Waves). Drop a needle into the middle of any of it and you'll be disarmed. The same goes for Allora, jagged as it may be on its face — but follow the coarse, winding path of any track and you'll be met over and again with the same springs of hymnlike tenderness. Hedley and Knishkowy’s keen instrumental performances do well to articulate the deeply communal nature of this tenderness — on "Bend," simultaneously one of the album's most directly grief-laden and triumphant songs, they march arm in arm from tearful elegy to an outright dancefloor eulogy. Neither cancels the other.

Ben's a writer, I try to be. He sent some keywords and phrases along to season the pan for me, and I'm making a few of them my yearbook quotes here: One is cuore granata – the calling card of Torino Football Club, literally “heart grenade” in English. The other is Kate Bush’s simpatico "There is thunder in our hearts." As Ben’s friend, I’d go so far as to say these aren’t just ideas he likes — together, they form a claim he lives. The belief that each of us possesses a thunder to wield is a lesson he taught and continues to teach me. And Allora is a mighty example.

(Bio by Caleb Cordes)

releases July 26, 2024

🚛 Shipping Disclaimer

Due to the nature of mail-order and the way in which some records are packaged (e.g., sealed), seam splits may occur in transit.

If you wish to avoid this, Devil Dog strongly recommends requesting shipping records outside of their sleeve. You can do this via the order notes box at checkout or by emailing info@devildogdistro.com with your order information.

If you do not make this request and receive records with seam splits, Devil Dog is not liable for this damage.

Will I be charged Customs and/or Import Fees on my order?

Devil Dog is based in the UK. Due to the recent changes that have arisen since Brexit - going forward EU Customers will now be charged VAT on orders upon arrival into your country, plus any handling charges. These fees and charges must be paid by the receiver.

If you are unsure what fees will apply to your order, please check with your local customs office before purchasing so you are aware of charges to avoid any nasty surprises. Customs and Import fees vary from country to country, so we cannot give any specific information regarding the charges customers may incur.

Pre-Order Info 📆

Pre-orders refer to items that are not currently in stock or are still in the manufacturing process.

Expected shipping dates can always be found in the product description.

Please note that any order that includes a pre-order item will not be shipped until all pre-order items are available in stock.

End Of Year Sale

Cart

Ben Seretan "Allora" LP

🚛 Shipping Disclaimer

Pre-Order Info 📆

Share

You may also like...

Subscribe to our newsletter

Cart

Ben Seretan "Allora" LP

Regular price

🚛 Shipping Disclaimer

Pre-Order Info 📆

Share

You may also like...

Subscribe to our newsletter