Are We The Flood?

from Studies by Ben Osborn

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about

A powerful expression of climate grief and a persuasive indictment of the politics that ignores a planet in crisis, Ben Osborn’s new single 'Are We The Flood?' presents an urgent social commentary. Building on recent single 'The Fire', ‘Are We The Flood?’ continues Ben’s exploration of the personal, emotional reality of global crises.
The track's skilful storytelling and intricate sound design are a testament to Ben’s background as a theatre composer and librettist, alongside his rising prominence as a songwriter and producer.
His vocals, soft and speech-like, take on a wistful tone as he frames a series of revealing questions. Building from the intimately personal (“heard the crash of waves against the timber frame / almost the same as your heartbeat”), he looks to the burning horizons beyond his town, and the generations of exploitation that caused the crisis (“Will it be that the trees are a funeral pyre… and we’re framed by the flames of our faded empire?"). He lands with gravitas on the song’s central duality: “Are we the drowned / Or are we the flood?”
As his compelling and subversive lyrics unfold towards the recognition of imminent disaster, a lilting piano melody is undercut by the jolting beats and looming electronic swells that are becoming synonymous with Ben’s work and his ongoing collaboration with co-producer Alex Stolze.
‘Are We The Flood?’ releases on Nonostar Records on all digital platforms on the 10th of December 2021.

lyrics

I wake up tonight
the first time that I can write
in weeks
heard the crash of waves
against the timber frame
almost the same
as your heartbeat
we'll be saved
if the waves
rise up over the land
we'll build our nest on the chimney
out of driftwood & crushed aluminium cans
worn soft by the raging sea
& will it be
that the sea will rise over this town?
& will it be
that the buildings will all be torn down?
will it be
that the waves will crash over the ground?
& is there a voice that sings out of the sound?
& are we the drowned
or are the flood?
& will it be
that the trees are a funeral pyre?
& the forest consumed
by the plumes rising hire?
& it poisons the air
spinning into the gyre?
& we're framed
by the flames of our faded empire?
& are we the fire
or are the flood?
I could sing
for the things that we've lost in the mud
I could cry
for the lies that they're telling to us
for the blindness that bleeds
& that laughs at our love
& are we the blood
or are we the flood?

credits

from Studies, track released December 10, 2021
written and performed by Ben Osborn
produced by Ben Osborn and Alex Stolze
mixed by Alex Stolze
mastered by Andrea Lupo Lubich

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Ben Osborn Berlin, Germany

“studies” EP out 20th of May

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Oct 03

Horns Erben

Leipzig, Germany
Oct 04

Kwia

Berlin, Germany

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