Ben Hermann's music has a wistful, beautiful quality to it. The Toronto-based, North Bay native's first full-length record, Windows Wide Open, takes shape around delicate instrumentation, elegant vocals and intimate stories about people, seasons and spaces.
It's not easy to pin down the inspiration for most of the 11 tracks here, but that's part of their allure. With the help of Miranda Mulholland, Melissa Bandura, Lara Dodds-Eden, David Shelly and others, Hermann mesmerizes with nuance and lightness of touch. "The Way You Cried," "Dance Me Home" and the title track should hush most crowds, while the record as a whole operates on that otherworldly level we've come to expect from albums released on Miranda Mulholland's Roaring Girl Records.
Add Hermann to the list of Canada's most promising folk singer-songwriters.
(Roaring Girl)It's not easy to pin down the inspiration for most of the 11 tracks here, but that's part of their allure. With the help of Miranda Mulholland, Melissa Bandura, Lara Dodds-Eden, David Shelly and others, Hermann mesmerizes with nuance and lightness of touch. "The Way You Cried," "Dance Me Home" and the title track should hush most crowds, while the record as a whole operates on that otherworldly level we've come to expect from albums released on Miranda Mulholland's Roaring Girl Records.
Add Hermann to the list of Canada's most promising folk singer-songwriters.