Confusions is the experimental, electro-pop and ambient project of Columbus, Ohio, USA-based artist Ben Turner. They have just hit my radar thanks to imminent release of their new album. A healing journey that explores the themes of love and identity, it’s called Limbic Psalms.
By Graeme Smith
Inspired by the likes of Fever Ray and The Knife, Ben created their new album through a process of recording and editing improvisations. The result is something that’s quite unlike anything else I’ve heard, and has a deeply personal, soul-bearing quality about it.
The album opens with Noncredible. You get the experimental nature of the album straight away but among it is something of a classic pop rock style, with a catchy melody and plenty of liveliness. Ben’s vocals are wonderfully expressive as they deliver poetic lyrics. It’s a great start.
It’s not mine combines soulfulness with electronica in a beautifully textured, jazzy number. Heart of the want to believer takes things in a delicate direction with some lo-fi ambience before picking up the pace. It blends perfectly into the atmospheric interlude that is ppl b4.
We can’t go brings with it some cosmic layers. Another green man goes hard with the percussion while telling an expressive electronic story. Idle hands has a satisfying groove and an undercurrent of blues. It’s a highlight.
String is an introspective moment at the heart of the album. It broods through rich verses and Ben’s vocals are wonderfully passionate during some soaring moments. It proves to be another highlight.
Dialectics has a metallic heaviness to it while Reclaim has a soft, ecclesiastical feel. By turning my head is short and meditative with captured robotic vocals. I knew simmers with a sense, ironically, of the unknown. Accessible and out of sight has an otherworldly eeriness about it. Quarry is minimal but rich with atmosphere. A place to say it’s real gives us an all-encompassing odyssey that unfolds gradually over nine minutes before You again closes the album with a whimsical, psychedelic vignette.
Limbic Psalms is composed and arranged by Ben Turner, and was recorded by Ben and Joey Gurwin in Ben’s home studio and Oranjudio with support from Music Columbus. It was mixed and produced by Ben and Joey, and mastered by Ben. The album will be out 5 January 2024 via Very Much Recordings and you can pre-order it here.
