Ben Howard

British singer-songwriter Ben Howard developed his songwriting between London, where he was born in 1987, and Devon, whose coastal landscape strongly informs his world. Initially associated with an intimate acoustic folk scene, he released several self-produced EPs around the turn of the 2010s before issuing his debut album Every Kingdom in 2011, marked by fingerstyle guitar, open chords and introspective songs. Howard then evolved his language on I Forget Where We Were (2014) toward a darker, more electric and expansive folk, with extended structures and a contained tension. With Noonday Dream (2018) he pursued a more atmospheric approach, blending slow ballads, ambient textures and indie rock influences. Collections from the Whiteout (2021), co-produced with Aaron Dessner, introduced more fragmented arrangements and narratives inspired by news items, while Is It? (2023) continued this experimental vein by working more with keyboards, rhythmic loops and a voice often treated as a sonic material. On stage Howard generally appears with a tight-knit band, which allows him to shift his songs from a narrative folk register to more open forms, sometimes approaching alternative or post-rock.