Keaton Henson announces new album with lead single "Prayer"

"Prayer" is the third track to be shared from Henson's forthcoming record, after previous singles "Ontario" and "Career Day".

On his new outing, Henson explains, ""Prayer" is a meditation on the act of preparing to lose someone, in whatever form that takes. It’s about the feeling of helplessness, and the realisation that there are no words you can say to someone before they leave that will make it less painful when they do, as much as we feel like there must be. The orchestral section is a more personal statement; I didn’t know what to say to my dad before he left and I don’t really know what to say now, so it is, for once in the record, just simply goodbye."

Monument will follow on from Henson's 2019 classical LP Six Lethargies and 2016's Kindly Now. The album was recorded with help from Radiohead's Philip Selway on drums and percussion, Leo Abrahams on guitar, saxophones from composer Charlotte Harding and a full string section.

Henson says of the upcoming album, "I suppose it is, at its heart, much like my first record; a collection of things I wanted to say, just so they’re out of my system, and not necessarily for anyone else to hear. I made it at home, mostly alone, to the sound of birds and rainstorms, at strange hours of day and night. But, once the bones were recorded, I was somewhat unexpectedly joined by an amazing group of people, who came to musically lift me on their shoulders, and take these unsaid feelings to another plain in terms of sound."

The musician will also be releasing a new poetry book called Accident Dancing in October. Henson says, "Accident Dancing is everything the way I remember it; i.e. fragmented, chaotic and often grammatically incorrect. I hope it feels authentically like a memory if nothing else. It was just something I needed to shake from my head."

Tracklist:

1. Ambulance
2. Self Portrait
3. Ontario
4. Career Day
5. Prayer
6. While I Can
7. Bed
8. The Grand Old Reason
9. Husk
10. Thesis
11. Bygones