Phoebe Bentham x Rankd
Pads, pianos and ambient bliss
Phoebe Bentham has established herself as an all-rounder in the local music scene, spreading her extensive knowledge across the world of audio production – recording local artists and gaining a strong reputation as a first point-of-contact for all things sound – while expanding her contributions into the world of live, AV and more. With a passion for unconventional soundscapes, Phoebe has soaked her home studio in an array of experimental pedals and equipment to explore her love for ambience, opening the doors for guests to bathe in thick, dreamy tones – or unpack trauma, pain and emotion in the harsh noise-laden sounds that can be conjured up effortlessly from Phoebe’s Hove-based home studio. With collaborations with the likes of Annie Dorret (CLT DRP) and Eva Lunny, Phoebe has also branched into her own musical endeavours. Songe is the latest ambient project to emerge alongside her sonic-companion Ëlle, an unstoppable duo that capture the raw essence of the ambient world with unfiltered yet intricate delicacy.
Many are familiar with Phoebe because of her work across the local music scene – as a producer, an artist, as a songwriter, the list goes on and on. More recently, she has ventured into the audiovisual world with @lastnightinbrighton – capturing retro VHS footage across home-brewed sessions and grassroots shows. Her latest release with Songe – ‘live from the Cherub Room 11.09.24’ – transforms viewers on a journey of the senses, a multimedia sensation that compliments the ambient sound and fosters a more immersive experience overall.
'I'd love to do that more - to get people who are incredibly talented musicians, but don't know so much about experimental music, come in and see and see what the deal is.'
Commenting on herself and her relationship with local music:
‘I guess fundamentally who Phoebe is – I work as like an audio engineer, studio recording mainly, but I do bits and pieces in live too. I’ve got a whole creative ambient side to me, songwriting, and I do plenty of jazz and other musical bits. God, there’s, there’s a lot. There’s a lot that makes a person a person, you know?’
The open nature of Phoebe’s musical direction has allowed for her personality to shine through – an expressive medium to really hone in on who Phoebe is, and why we should all open our arms to the experimental world as a release from the conventional:
‘I love some weird sounds me. I like weird sounds that are like harsh, noisy, very in your face stuff. Anything that has like a personality, I think really tend to think I’m drawn to – whether that be like gear in the studio that has like a lot of history and nuance or just like, yeah, sounds in general. Although those two those two things do tend to go hand in hand, I think.
Phoebe has collaborated with a growing melting-pot of artists amongst a discography of self-produced releases – and her work exists on a wide spectrum – tranquil ambience to harsh noise:
‘I think that the stuff that I tend to be drawn to when I want to work with people, I want to hear some trauma, I want to hear some like tragedy, I want to hear some sadness. Anything that’s painful, you know, that always tends to make the most fun music in my opinion. Every session is different. You know, you treat every artist different because it’s like a little creative puzzle – I can see if I can get the best possible sound for each individual person.’
Phoebe couldn’t have a better space to curate captivating ambience, conduct live streams and explore new sonic terrain – a room encapsulated in history and nostalgia with a moodily-lit workstation, 1940’s renaissance-style art lovingly painted from floor to ceiling and features that contribute to a entirely unique creative retreat:
‘I mean, this room has been like, a labour of love for my whole life. You find collections and bits – like that piano is like my childhood piano, for example. I grew up with that and yeah, it’s one of those things that you just like slowly find piece by piece, you know, every month I get an invoice paid, I can get something nice and shiny and new now for the for the studio.’
On the beginning of her ambient journey:
‘I guess I started with ambient music by like layering field recordings over very textural pads – that is in essence what my sound started as at its roots.
I’ve always been a pianist. I mean I’ve played piano since I was tiny, and I started experimenting with a pad and field recording, as well as layers of piano running through effects pedals and stuff like that. I think when I started streaming, it was a great way of experimenting with what pedals and sounds work with the piano and kind of being able to bounce off other people too.’
Her space tells a story, and outside of her home studio, ambient music as a genre exists as a smaller niche in the wider Brighton music scene – something that The Rose Hill Tavern has latched onto, offering their venue to platform these artists and pioneer all things unconventional:
‘Loads of people in Brighton don’t know about the Rose Hill Tavern – an absolutely beautiful venue. They always have very strange and weird people playing and performing, and I think that it’s cool to have a venue you can go and be weird at and everyone’s on the same page. Everyone’s there for the experimentation, you know?
I think there’s kind of an inherent musicianship of being like no. I’m going to do this. I’m going to do something different. I think the Rose Hill as a space definitely fosters that. Although I guess you could argue that TRH in of itself is, you know, a scene and its moulding weirdness as a as a genre. Maybe we should all just put on our own gigs in in the field, in the forests.’
Phoebe’s studio availability resumes from February, and Songe are set to release their debut album this year.
Watch the full interview on Rankd.uk