After twenty years in Everything But The Girl, and ten years as a respected DJ and record label boss of Buzzin’ Fly, Ben Watt announced last year he was parking everything to complete two long-planned creative solo projects. The first – published by Bloomsbury on February 13th – is his long-awaited second book, ‘Romany and Tom’, a dazzling portrait of his parents. The second is “Hendra”, released on his own new imprint, Unmade Road through Caroline International.

It is, in Ben’s words, ‘simply a folk-rock record in an electronic age’. ‘I had come to a plateau with the labels and clubland,’ he says. ‘I had a need to go back to words and music, not just beats and other people’s work. Once I made some space, a lot of ideas just tumbled out.’ The upshot is ten songs. Unsentimental. Impressionistic. Songs about close family and strangers, resilience and hope. All set in vivid landscapes where the outside comes inside and clings to the stories.

Recorded in London and Berlin, the music is a meeting of worlds: languid folk, distorted rock and fizzing electronics; in part a result of the album’s two central collaborators, ex-Suede guitarist, Bernard Butler, and Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson. The album also includes one other unexpected stellar cameo on ‘The Levels’ – Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour…