Ben Howard will release Collections From The Whiteout, on March 26, via Republic Records. The LP was Produced by Aaron Dessner (The National, Sharon Van Etten), and is the first time Ben has opened the door to production outside of he and his band.

Along with the announcement, Howard has shared the album’s first single “What A Day,” along with a video directed by Cloé Bailly. Ben shares, “This was a nonsense idea loosely thrown together on the old English rhyme ‘back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other’ with a bit of animal hysteria thrown in. Cloé somehow transformed a basic countryside shoot ‘em up into an amazing tale of delightful retribution. She is a queen of dark comedy and I’m so grateful that as friends we got to work together on it. The eclectic Bulgarian cast and crew somehow managed to pull this off in strange times, it was all the more entertaining in a completely foreign language.

Two summers ago Howard was driving through Portugal listening to People Collective, the collaborative project spearheaded by Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner. As Howard crossed the river Tagus, the circular loops of 17-minute track “Santa Agnes” (written and recorded by the Dessners) captivated him. It captured a moment he was keen not to forget and gave him an impetus to get back home and to work on a new record.

At this point Howard’s fourth album was just a few fragments of ideas. He threw caution to the wind, contacted Aaron Dessner and the pair began a process of creative push and pull that would create the finest record of Howard’s career. “I was quickly fascinated by what Ben was doing and the state he was in,” Dessner reflects. “It was a good collision of openness, not on the clock. He’s making some of his most adventurous music and also writing some of his best songs at the same time.”

Collections From The Whiteout was made in a state of near permanent transience as Howard flitted between New York (where he holed up with Dessner at his Long Pond Studio), Devon, and Paris where he once again went into the studio with Dessner. For the last 18 months, however, he’s been enjoying the stability of his new home in Ibiza. His parents are nearby, he and his father tend to the land around the house and down the road was where his grandfather, a former beau of the Velvet Underground’s tragic chanteuse Nico, set up a jazz bar in the 1960s. It’s from here that he put the finishing touches on the record, as he and Aaron exchanged final mixes online.

Album credits include Yussef Dayes, one of the UK’s most innovative young drummer/producer’s, Kate Stables (This Is The Kit), James Krivchenia (Big Thief), Kyle Keegan (Hiss Golden Messenger), and Aaron lent his hand too where needed. Thomas Bartlett (St. Vincent), Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Laura Marling, Phoebe Bridgers) are also present. Long-term guitarist to Ben’s band, Mickey Smith, appears on the album as well.

Ben Howard
Collections from The Whiteout
Track listing
Republic Records

Follies Fixture
What A Day
Crowhurst’s Meme
Finders Keepers
Far Out
Rookery
You Have Your Way
Sage That She Was Burning
Sorry Kid
Unfurling
Metaphysical Cantations
Make Arrangements
The Strange Last Flight Of Richard Russell
Buzzard