Ben Folds has announced details of a landmark new album slated for digital release in the spring with a vinyl release to follow in the late summer.
The upcoming album will showcase new pop songs by the multi-platinum-selling singer/songwriter/producer recorded and arranged in collaboration with yMusic – a critically-acclaimed NYC-based sextet, along with the debut recording of Folds’ critically acclaimed “Concerto For Piano and Orchestra.” Recorded in just under two weeks in New York, Los Angeles, and Folds’ own historic RCA Studio A in Nashville, the album is marked by its forward-thinking studio craft and creative spontaneity.
“I don’t recall ever being quite so excited about an album I’m making,” Folds says. “I’ll let you decide if that’s a good thing or not. It’s just that we don’t often get to make a record that we’ve never heard before. The arrangements you will hear on this record are straight up rock – not ornamentation. The odd instrumentation – piano, cello, viola, violin, flute/piccolo/alto flute, trumpet/French horn, and clarinet/bass clarinet, with no bass and more often than not, no drums – is yielding something that I can’t wait to release. It’s a pop record, if that’s what you call what I write. ”
Folds with yMusic will herald the new album with a kick off tour run starting in late April in a very special series of residencies in New York, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, ME, Charlottesville, Richmond, Durham, and Washington, DC. The multi-night stands will see Folds and yMusic as his band appearing at venues spanning intimate clubs to concert halls – complete details will be unveiled soon. Ben Folds with yMusic will also make an exclusive festival appearance at this year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, set for Friday, June 12th in Manchester, Tennessee, and other possible dates together throughout the year.
