Ben McElroy - EPK

info@benmcelroy.co.uk

benmcelroy.co.uk

Recent Press & Substack Link

A Closer Listen - Allotment Tapes Review

Ben’s Substack - Learn More About Allotment Tapes

Ben is an ambient/folk/experimental musician originally from The Wirral but now residing in Nottingham. He combines acoustic instruments with computer processing to create folk inspired soundscapes.

Ben has been writing music since his teens, with just a basic grasp of guitar and even more basic recording equipment. Over the years he’s picked up more instruments and slightly better recording gear, and has been venturing out to perform live since 2022.

His album How I Learnt To Disengage From The Pack received folk album of the month in The Guardian in January 2022. In 2025 he released the PRS funded Elkwort on Laaps. Here he was accompanied by artists Debbie Armour (Burd Ellen), Nick Jonah Davis and Elinor Rowlands.

For 2026, Ben is releasing a new EP every month responding sonically to St Anns Allotments in Nottingham. Featuring field recordings, conversations and new composition, Allotment Tapes follows the arc of the seasons through the oldest and largest allotment site in Europe. Ben says:

“I came to allotments, and St Anns in particular, via a rather wavy process… I think I wanted to do something connected to land use/nature as these are subjects that are important to me. What I love about allotments is the real DIY, non- conformist vibe that purveys them. Aesthetically, I think they’re lovely, all higgledy-piggledy, sheds made from old doors, nature re-claiming an old watering can. I think there’s something really positive and nourishing about this. It also comes across when talking to plot holders, some really lovely ‘plot-philosophy.’”

VIDEOS BELOW

“A shivering seabed of sound, haunted by barely there vocals and stitched together with lo-fi production.”

— THE GUARDIAN

“An evocatively curated and wonderfully weird album.”

— SONGLINES MAGAZINE

“Excellent … dissonant and beautiful sonic meditations.”

— THE QUIETUS

“Really love this… Such a good idea and created with such charm”

— MOONBUILDING