Ben Harper - Winter Is For Lovers (Opaque White Vinyl)

Ben Harper's new album Winter Is for Lovers, boasts 15 original instrumental movements named after the places that inspired them. The dramatically stripped down album features just Ben and his Monteleone lap steel guitar.

According to Harper, the album explores the American Primitive movement pioneered by Leo Kottke and John Fahey and harks back to the Folk Music Store, the influential California music shop opened by Harper’s grandparents in the Fifties.

“This is my first entirely instrumental album. It is stark, barebones, just me and my lap steel guitar,” Harper said in a statement. “It is purposefully produced to sound intimate and spare as if I am playing in your living room. I am a big fan of flamenco, classical, Hawaiian and blues guitar, and these influences are all represented within Winter Is for Lovers.”

He added: “I have been composing this record for most of my adult life, and the challenge this record presented to me was completely new. To record an entire album with one guitar and no words, where every single nuance was under a microscope, was more demanding than any record I have made to date, and also more rewarding.”

Limited edition OPAQUE WHITE vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve. Pressed by ANTI Records.