Janice Caplan

Inspired in part by Eastern European and Jewish folk traditions, Ben Caplan mixes older musical sensibilities with his own soul, straight from his hairy heart. His new album, Birds with Broken Wings, explodes with sounds both ancient and modern, with more than 30 musicians and even more instruments, combining acoustic sounds from around the world. It’s all smoothly blended by the hottest international production team around. It’s uncharted territory, and Caplan’s leading the way.

Inspired in part by Eastern European and Jewish folk traditions, Ben Caplan mixes older musical sensibilities with his own soul, straight from his hairy heart. His new album, Birds with Broken Wings, explodes with sounds both ancient and modern, with more than 30 musicians and even more instruments, combining acoustic sounds from around the world. It’s all smoothly blended by the hottest international production team around. It’s uncharted territory, and Caplan’s leading the way.

Tout feu, tout bleu. S’il fallait dépeindre le nouvel album de Jil Caplan avec des couleurs, ce serait celles-là. Feu comme le brasier de la colère et l’incendie de la passion, bleu comme l’azur infini et les meurtrissures de l’âme. La braise et le blues, la flamme et le spleen. Il conviendrait aussi d’y ajouter sensualité et mélancolie, tournoyant dans un tourbillon d’émotions. Comme un soleil noir, aussi sombre qu’incandescent. Sur les cendres danser, pour retrouver la joie, l’envol, pour revivre tout simplement. Après la pop électro de Derrière la porte et le jazz manouche d’Imparfaite, ses précédents albums, Jil Caplan revient à ses éternelles amours, un retour aux sources qui l’ont toujours nourrie : le folk rock à guitares, les ballades charnelles, les harmonies subtiles, quelque part entre Paul McCartney et Jeff Buckley.

Der mit seinem 2016er Album Birds With Broken Wings bereits einer breiten deutschen Öffentlichkeit vertraut gemachte, charaktervolle kanadische Singer & Songwriter Ben Caplan mit einem genreübergreifende Musiktheater-Hybrid.

A charismatic charmer and a smasher of pianos. A madman and an earnest poet. A strummer of delicate chords and a lover of bent and broken melodies. His rough and textured tones cut through crowded halls; an enormous voice, roaring louder than raucous crowds. Once he has your attention, Caplan can croon smoother than a glass of single malt whisky, pouring beauty into a harsh world.

Connoisseurs of coffin nails will no doubt delight at the name of Ben Caplan’s backing band. In these days of anti-smoking hysteria their title and the music behind it belies a cheeky form of rebellion, conjuring up late night bars, too much booze and a crafty hit of nicotine in the rain outside while a fight breaks out on the dance floor. Caplan’s album is a mish-mash of many styles, all of which would find their home in roadhouses and smoking dens. The album’s predominate vibe is bluesy shanties, with Caplan’s deep growl reverberating like a hybrid of Eddie Vedder and the throaty rasp of Tom Waits. The Casual Smokers themselves accompany on a variety of traditional instruments veering between jugband and gypsy punk. The odd flash of far-eastern exoticism can be heard in the likes of the stomping Conduit, but the overall effect is like a group of hillbillies have infiltrated a Brechtian cabaret.