"Topograph" out now! — Ben Cosgrove

Hello everybody,

Today is the day! I couldn't be more pleased to announce that as of this morning, my new album Topograph is finally available in all formats -- streaming, CD, vinyl, and even chocolate bar -- everywhere you can listen to music. I've appreciated your patience while I've been yelling into your inbox about this record for the last few months, but it's finally out in the world today, I'm so happy with how it turned out, and I can't wait for you all to hear it. Listen to Topograph in full now on Spotify, Bandcamp, or any other platform -- I'm eager to hear what you all think of it.

I wrote and recorded Topograph in bits and pieces all around the country and shaped all those elements into the final album last summer with producer Dan Cardinal, who also worked with me on Bearings and The Trouble With Wilderness. In part because this album was made during what can conservatively be described as an unnerving and chaotic time in the world, a lot of this music is inspired by landscapes that are characterized by some type of tumult themselves: in moments when things feel upside-down or out of control, I am often encouraged by looking at how so many landscapes retain their character, identity, and dignity even while they're in the middle of some fast or slow process of being reshaped. I began work on this album while on an artist residency near the mouth of the Columbia River, and was awed by the dynamism of the landforms there: an island that had migrated from one side of the river to the other; majestic dunes that never stop shape-shifting; waves wearing down the edges of cliffs; a nearby volcano whose entire profile changed during an eruption 45 years ago; roads that have been rerouted or redesigned to accommodate these changes. No landscape is ever -- or will ever be -- in any sort of final form, and I found it helpful to focus on that while I was writing these songs and navigating this last year.

I also wanted to preserve a bit of the chaos and unpredictability of those places and phenomena in the writing/recording process: we intentionally worked on an accelerated timeline in order to throw me off my game a little and to prevent me from overthinking any one element for too long, and I think it helped keep the music feeling more alive. Some of the songs here began as fragments that I jotted down in a notebook years ago, some were written out completely one way and then reworked dramatically during recording, and others were completely improvised on the spot in the studio. And to give the music the textural diversity I felt it needed -- as well as to take things one more tiny bit further out of my control -- I called upon a wider cast of collaborators than usual for this project: I am enormously grateful to have pedal steel guitarist Hamilton Belk on two tracks, my friends in Darlingside supplying vocals on “Swale” and string instruments throughout, and my two-year-old nephew (passionately thwacking some drums and cymbals) all filling out the edges of these songs. To get some even more new and interesting sounds, Dan and I also treated the pianos in some different and exciting ways while recording; I particularly love the masking-tape texture that we wound up featuring on songs like "Guardrail," "Sea Smoke," and "Meander."

If you're in Maine, I'll be celebrating the new album with a release concert tonight at the Portland Museum of Art that I think will be a lot of fun. Tickets are getting low at this point, but there are still some spots open and I hope that you can join us! If, however, for some reason you're not hanging out in urban Maine during the coldest and snowiest time of year, here are some other places that I'll be in the coming weeks:

1/30 PORTLAND, ME - Portland Museum of Art (album release concert)

2/3 CAMBRIDGE, MA - Lilypad (album release concert)

2/12 GULFPORT, FL - WonderWorks Gulfport

2/13 HIGH SPRINGS, FL - Florida Springs Institute

2/14 GAINESVILLE, FL - Theatre of Memory

2/15 WAKULLA SPRINGS, FL - The Lodge at Wakulla Springs

2/19 DURHAM, NC - House Concert

2/21 ESSEX, CT - Connecticut River Museum

2/26 CONCORD, NH - Bank of NH Stage (supporting Sons of Town Hall)

3/14 MIDDLETOWN, CT - The Buttonwood Tree

It admittedly feels a bit silly to be promoting a new album of piano music while so many more alarming and important things are happening in the world. But making this record, while certainly challenging at times, was really helpful for me and I hope at the very least that listening to these songs might make your life a tiny bit better too.

Thank you all so much for listening, and I can't wait to hear what you think of the new songs. Wishing you all lots of kindness and warmth wherever it is that this music might find you.

Gratefully,

Ben