Cellist Ben Sollee’s new album is culmination of longtime partnership

Ben Sollee did think twice about the title of his new album, “Infowars.”

In one way, it’s a general term he became familiar with through the NPR podcast “Code Switch,” referring to people battling over their perceptions of truth. But Infowars has become more well known in recent months as a right-wing website and radio show hosted by Alex Jones that trades in conspiracy theories.

Sollee wasn’t wild about the latter association.

“I did consider changing the name, but I didn’t, because the term inspired most of the artwork that’s on this record,” he says.

The album, which comes out Friday and will be celebrated with a hometown show at Lexington’s Christ Church Cathedral, is a product of the four years since Sollee’s last full-length studio album and the season when it is being released.

The immediate is both global and personal. Sollee has never been shy about taking stands on political and social justice issues, particularly environmental concerns, and this hyper-partisan election season has certainly not escaped his notice.

At the same time, he is dealing with the dissolution of his parents’ 40-year marriage, which he addresses on the album in “The Guitar Man And The Singing Girl,” a track that traces a relationship and finds Sollee getting choked up on record, as it falls apart.

What will strike listeners who have followed Sollee’s music over the past decade is that the album seems to be a full realization of twists and turns documented in singles and live recordings dropped since 2012’s “Half Made Man.”

The core is Sollee’s gritty cello, but electronic music, field recordings and percussion are in full flower, the latter coming from longtime collaborator Jordon Ellis, who shares artist credit on “Infowars.”

The pair met in high school, when they were in all-state band. Later, as Sollee launched his career, he wanted to include percussion but had a hard time finding drummers used to working with a percussionist.

What they play now sounds closer to rock and Americana — if a label really works — but Sollee and Ellis say their classical training is essential to their work together.

“What Jordon and I are doing is chamber music,” Sollee says. “All the changes and timing are cues we learned in school, playing in orchestra and band.”

The duo got back together in 2009, and “Infowars” was a complete collaboration.

“It’s a product of closing ourselves in the studio world and just going,” says Ellis, who grew up in Frankfort and has resettled there. “It was a comfortable record to record — super, super comfortable.”

With technological advances, Ellis and Sollee were able to craft all aspects of the album. “It allows us to be good musicians and holistic artists,” Ellis says.

The duo knew that after it came out, they would tour to promote “Infowars,” and they recorded the album to sound good in a live environment.

“We set up a studio sound system to record and tried not to use headphones,” Ellis says. “We wanted that kind of open feel.”

Friday’s show will be something of a homecoming for Sollee, who moved to Louisville last year. He says that move has been good for him personally and creatively.

“I have received more than a dozen commissions since I moved here,” says Sollee, whose projects have included scoring a show for the city’s StageOne Family Theatre last year. “For someone who makes a living in the arts, it’s a great environment.”

But Sollee has not forgotten his roots and the experiences in his hometown that helped launch his career, including playing in the house band for the “WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour.”

“The knowledge I gleaned from ‘WoodSongs’ and getting to meet all of the artists that went through there you usually don’t get until your mid-30s,” Sollee says.

That knowledge helped him navigate the early years of his career, launched in the midst of the recession of 2008 and ’09 and extraordinary change in the music business.

“None of us growing up in the age of MS-DOS and Internet Explorer could have imagined making a living off streaming video and downloadable music,” Sollee says. “But that’s what we’re doing, and it’s an exciting environment.”

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Cellist Ben Sollee’s new album is culmination of longtime partnership."