About Sudden Voices

Sudden Voices is a project led by Ben Morris, who returned to music last year after a hiatus of more than fifteen years.

Ben previously served time in Union Wireless, a London-based post\kraut\experimental-rock band who released a couple of well-received albums back in the late 1990s. The first was recorded at London's renowned analogue paradise Toe Rag Studios, the second with Toby Robinson (CAN, Derek Bailey, etc). Both albums were kindly reviewed in the music press of the day, and maybe even listened to by a few people. It was hard to tell back then.

By the early 2000s real life intervened and they had gone their separate ways, some to musical destinations as diverse as noise poetry-mongers Map 71 and folk-rock unit-shifters Bellowhead, others to "proper jobs" and overwhelmed parenthood. Ben didn't completely abandon music during the intervening years, allowing Sudden Voices arrived fully formed with a clear identity.

Sudden Voices' music is based around a warm, organic psychedelia, where chanted vocals fight for attention with repetitive grooves and acoustic instruments. The songs are written through improvisation giving the songs an experimental feel without sacrificing a melodic edge or sense of coherence.

Influences range from the metronomic groove of krautrock, through to the space jazz of "Bitches Brew", via a clear fondness for The Velvet Underground, Talk Talk, and The Fall. The results are shot through with a DIY work ethic and low-fi sensibility, as well as an ear for a good tune.

A debut album emerged in the Spring of 2023, while the follow-up - Days and Nights - is in the can. This second album builds on the debut, adding a richer palette of instruments and more complex arrangements to the mix. Strings, mallets, reeds, and keys mingle with vocal harmonies, chants, and drones, creating a set of sound collages that rise and fall around bass-driven grooves.

Post-rock, post-psychedelic, post something-or-other.