Set for release on February 17 via Enchanté and Believe, IS IT YOU? is the intimate new album from award-winning French Soul troubadour BEN L’ONCLE SOUL. Written and composed by Ben L’Oncle Soul in collaboration with Gunnar Ellwanger, and engineered by Grammy Award-winning producer Scott Jacoby (Janelle Monáe, Coldplay, Vampire Weekend), the new Is It You? album is led by the recently released singles ‘A Rose’, ‘Sky Has Open Doors’ and ‘Levitate’, which have been met with rave reviews from fans and critics alike, while also amassing over half a million plays online.
Knitted together beautifully by Ben L’Oncle Soul’s enchanting voice, glorious lyricism, and amazing melodies, Is It You? is the French soul star’s most personal album yet. Recorded live at the world-renowned Red House in Champagne-Ardenne with his beloved tour band also known as the shock team, the nine-track album is spontaneous, acoustic and offers up the very best of R&B, jazz, and soul music. Inquisitive at its very core, Is It You? explores the theme of life and spirituality, and it is driven, not by a desire to find the answers, but to reconsider the magic of this life that unites us.
As Ben L’Oncle Soul puts it, “This album is a conversation about life. The pandemic made us have a different point of view, we had to live differently, I started to see life all over again. We had to deal with our feelings; whether it was anger, hope, or faith; I tried to find a way with music”. Find a way is exactly what Ben does on Is It You? – from the opening title track, which sees Ben in a thankful mood, and the self-loving ‘The Greatest’, to ‘Something New’ that looks forward to better times, and the album’s curtain call ‘Terrified’ about being afraid to find your true self.
Ben L’Oncle Soul began his music career after graduating from the School of Fine Arts in his hometown, Tours, Indre-et-Loire, in France. He later joined the Fitiavana Gospel Choir in 2004, and helped the Tours-based choir record their first album ‘I Have A Dream’ in 2009. The soul troubadour would then go onto sign with Motown Records (Universal Music France) and release his first EP ‘Soul Wash: Lesson 1’ in 2009, followed by his self-titled debut album ‘Ben l’Oncle Soul’ in 2010, which reached #5 on the French Album Charts – the rest as they say is history.
With five acclaimed albums under his belt and over 200 million streams, the French soul star is certified multi-platinum in his home country France, where he has also won a Globes de Cristal award for ‘Best Male Singer’ and a Victoires de la Musique award – the equivalent of the Grammy Awards in France – for ‘Live Breakthrough’. Internationally, Ben L’Oncle Soul has also achieved chart success in Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland, among other countries, while also touring all over the world, including Montreal’s International Jazz Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival, to mention a few.
1. Is It You?
2. Levitate
3. A Rose…
4. Sky Has Open Doors
5. The Greatest
6. Something New
7. Mistakes
8. Dear Light
9. Terrified
February 2 – Philharmonie, Haarlem, Netherlands
February 3 – Limburgzaal Heerlen, Heerlen, Netherlands
February 4 – Spot, Groningen, Netherlands
February 6 – Courchevel Méribel, Méribel, France
February 7 – KOKO, London, United Kingdom
February 10 – Théâtre Municipal, Béthune, France
February 11 – De Roma, Anvers, Belgium
February 12 – La Madeleine, Bruxelles, Belgium
February 16 – Kammgarn, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
February 16 – ZOOM, Frankfurt, Germany
March 11 – Le Mas D’Hiver, Puget-Sur-Argens, France
March 30 – Le Briscope, Brignais, France
April 1 – La Briqueterie, Schiltigheim, France
