All This Could Kill You

“All This Could Kill You” is a fiercely beautiful and mysterious collaboration between husband and wife, Ben + Vesper, and their cast of siblings, grade school friends, brand new friends and friendly strangers. Produced and recorded by Daniel Smith (Danielson), this 13-song album smartly navigates through wildly disparate genres and styles and lands squarely in the ranks of good music that you simply cannot be without. If Ben + Vesper must be classified, one could parse it as such: 1/3 English Country Lane, 1/3 Croonsville, 1/16th Motown, 1/32 Brazilian Psychodelialand, 1/32 Dark Mythic Forest. All comparisons aside, this is music that innocently holds hands with innovation and accessibility.

The great strength of this album is the mystical connection that is instantly apparent between the couple at the helm. The low hum resonance of Ben’s voice floats and falls through one gorgeous melody after another, while Vesper effortlessly breathes every harmony like a shining maiden from the nether world. One gets the feeling that Ben + Vesper are singing to you alone, reciting the forgotten letters of an old friend written in a common language that lay dormant far too long.

Every song offers instrumentation that is wonderfully diverse and concise derived from a team of formidable players, some well known, and some who are bound to be. Sufjan Stevens quietly sits on the floor with his banjo, woodwinds, vocals and piano while drummer, David Smith (Danielson), punches each song into its full dance floor potential. Daniel and his wife Elin sing and whistle and snap and knit. But the manic men behind the curtain are Ben’s older brother Josh and Ben’s lifelong friend Chris Weisman. Together, they worked tirelessly to forge the backdrop of sound that has you edging ever closer to your speakers. Their arrangements are fine tuned in their complexities, yet breathe the air of improvisation that reference the hardship and playfulness of life while flatly condemning the cold claws of irony that have gripped so much independent music today.

“All This Could Kill You” is an album that is 100% human and still winsome to the masses. This recording achieves what all timeless music does: to look squarely at the sufferings of this life and hold out hope like a weapon for all to wield, and to have fun all the while.

“In an era heavy-laden with singleness (as the latest statistics boast), Ben + Vesper’s beautiful, oddball musicology is a refreshing thesis for marriage without pandering to all the naive notions of matrimony. It’s not a record of love on Hallmark’s terms; instead, it’s a vigilant scrutiny of the day-today expeditions of home and work: child-rearing, car mechanic, credit card, grade point average, and washing machine, to name a few. In Ben + Vesper’s songs, the standard domestic life begins to feel as grotesque as a Bukowski poem, just without all the profanities.”

-Sufjan Stevens

“Ben’s abstract yet emotive songs have been an inspiration to me since I was in the 5th grade. Listening to the new album, I feel like I’m at the Omni Theater and the Stampers are floating next to a rock face. Playful but never brash, “All this Could Kill You” graciously welcomes a wide listenership.”

-Kurt Weisman of Feathers

Track List

  1. Door To Door
  2. An Honest Bluff
  3. Many Moons
  4. Live Free or Try
  5. Vow Takers
  6. Carnaval
  7. The Floridian
  8. 8 Mo.
  9. The Stomach
  10. Force Field
  11. Rockaway Twp.
  12. Nite Walker
  13. When Life Strikes