Ben Christophers has come along way since his humble beginnings in Wolverhampton. With two critically acclaimed albums under his belt ‘My Beautiful Demon’ and ‘Spoonface’, he is back and set to woo the critics and fans once again with his third offering the beautiful and seductive new album, ‘The Spaces In Between’, which is due for release on 13th September 2004.

’The Spaces In Between’ shows Ben in a new light. “This is the most upbeat and optimistic record I’ve written”, explains Ben. “The biggest difference between this one and my two previous albums is that I had so much material written, I had a really clear feeling for the sound because of it.”

Written and recorded between the Summer of 2003 and early 2004, it also marks the first time that Ben hasn’t worked with producer/artist David Kosten of Faultline. “I had been writing for a while and would go and see David every now and then and show him what I was doing. He gave me a lot of advice on where to go, but there was a point I realized our paths weren’t going to cross this time, he was busy with his label Tiny Consumer and new album and I was ready to get started it just unfolded that way this time, but who knows I hope we work together again.”

During the recording of ‘Spoonface’ Ben met Cenzo Townshend, (Graham Coxon, Blur, Datsuns, Cranberries, Echo and the Bunnymen) Cenzo has a mobile studio which he had been putting together for a while. “I took him my demos and he really liked the straight forwardness and understood what I was trying to do. We hired this house in Suffolk right by the sea and he took his Studio down and we spent about three weeks putting it in to shape.”

Drawing influences from David Bowie (I love the way he moved between moods from album to album), Kate Bush (“the way she used strings on ‘Hounds of Love’, they just bounced on the beat, it’s genius.”) Prince, Edith Piaf and Nina Simone. Ben played and arranged just about everything on the album, recording the guitar and vocals at the same time, adding the other instruments afterwards.

Ben has also been writing with the French chanteuse Francoise Hardy. The track will feature on her new album ‘Tant de belles choses’, “I wrote her a letter’ says Ben, ‘it took me ages to get the wording right and not sound like a stalker - I mean - what do you say? We hope to do more together in the future too.”

Ben began writing songs at the tender age of five when his father gave him his first guitar. “I think I saw songwriting as an escape when I started, like fantasy, infact I still do he says. My first song was in E-minor and lasted for about 30seconds. It was an awesome feeling recording it on to this old reel-to-reel tape I had, I was completely fascinated by it and used it until it stopped working.”

He graduated on to the piano when his grandmother installed one in the family home. Much to his parents’ horror, Ben was only interested in how to detune it; “I fell in love with the way it rattled and choked, I thought I'd found the Devil…”

Ben's first job after leaving school, was working in a factory that distributed pornography. “I met some of the most inspiring people ever, it was so bleak and so depressing” he explains. “There were people who were on the run, just out of prison. I was kind of taken under their wing, because I was obviously completely out of my depth and so young. I think they thought I was a bit posh. I stuck it out for about a year but I had to leave.”

Ben emerged on to the music scene in 1999, with a series of low-key solo shows underneath a pizza parlour in the West End of London. Each night, the shows were rammed, the audience riveted by his performances of irresistible fragility and passion. Shortly afterwards he signed to V2 releasing two albums, which was followed by extensive touring in the UK, Europe and Australia.

Ben signed to Cooking Vinyl for the world in early 2004. Which brings us neatly back to where we started. The Spaces In Between is compulsive listening. From the sweetly sinister ‘Flowers Drink Upon The Ground’, and the shimmering simplicity of ‘Devil To Kill’, to the laid back, happy-go-lucky feel of ‘Good Day For the Hopeless’, and the mesmerizing ‘Riversong’ the album resonates with life, passion and emotional genius.