Curtis Harding at this year’s Best Kept Secret – recorded on June 13th by the venerable VPRO in the Netherlands.
And who better to tell you all about Curtis Harding than Curtis Harding himself, right?
One of the most visionary artists in soul music today, Curtis Harding is proof of the strange magic that happens when musical prowess meets unbridled imagination. In the making of his fourth full-length, the Atlanta-based singer/songwriter dreamed up a batch of songs exploring the longing and unease of being far from home—a true-to-life reflection he soon expanded into an elaborate concept album about a pilot lost in space. The latest addition to an acclaimed catalog including his 2017 breakthrough Face Your Fear (co-produced by Danger Mouse), Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt merges the lavish scope of a space opera with the pure feeling of classic soul—ultimately bringing an even greater potency to his wildly eclectic sound.
Self-produced at Electric Deluxe Recorders (an Austin studio owned by Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas), Departures & Arrivals serves as the follow-up to If Words Were Flowers—a 2021 release hailed by the likes of UPROXX, who praised Harding for “making some of the best modern soul music out right now.” For Harding, the decision to handle production on his own stemmed from a deep desire to pursue his creative ideals without compromise or restraint. “I produced my first album so this felt like a return, although this time I was more confident and capable of sonically going where I wanted to go,” says Harding. “I really love the process of building worlds in the studio, doing what I want in the moment and experimenting with new sounds instead of doing the same thing over and over.” Mostly recorded live with a full band, Departures & Arrivals encompasses everything from moody space-funk to lush baroque-pop to otherworldly psych-rock—all while endlessly spotlighting Harding’s rich and captivating vocals and incandescent guitar work.
So says the man himself, via his own website.
Clearly, he was a hit at Best Kept Secret – press Play and find out for yourself.
A little Soul works wonders.
