Benjamin Clementine opened the Prague Sounds festival with flying colours

© Marie Trávníčková / musicserver.cz

Benjamin Clementine took the stage alone, dressed entirely in white and, as is his custom, boots. Those legs have come a long way in the past ten years. Perhaps even longer than when he was supposed to play at the festival in Rotterdam in 2013. And since his financial situation was miserable at the time and the conductor caught him driving in the dark, he had to get off the train. Determined to sing stand up at the North Jazz Festival, he decided then to walk the remaining forty-five kilometers on foot and barefoot. When he got there after ten hours, during which none of the passing drivers stopped him, his legs were covered in blood. The author of three full-length albums today did not have an easy life. That’s why just the sight of the stage of the wonderful hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague, illuminated by dimmed lights, was very impressive. Both for viewers familiar with his story, and for a former homeless man who moved from Britain and then played in the Paris metro and in bars for several years. And he slept – if there were occasional problems – in hostels with nine other strangers. And he was just waiting for someone to notice him.

“I would be more careful about always having enough food in my backpack. Mostly I just had raw spaghetti or something. I honestly wouldn’t change a thing.” answered our sister magazine Full Moon in a recent interview when Vojtěch Tkáč asked him if he would do anything differently today. And he added: “It sounds strange, but in retrospect I think it’s kind of beautiful to go to Paris of my own free will. A lot of people don’t have that opportunity. I even feel a certain privilege in the lifestyle I was able to live. I’ve become more modest and practical human. I learned more about the essence of life. When you’re suicidal, you have to find a reason to keep going.”

But he got an even tougher lesson in how show business works when talent scouts finally noticed him and managed to get him a gig on the late-night show Later With Jools Holland, where he was seen performing by Earth, Wind & Fire, Gary Clark Jr., Arctic’s Alex Turner The Monkeys and also a certain Paul McCartney. He came to him after filming and told the then completely unknown beginner to his face not to give up and to continue what he was doing. But it only gets chills later when you find out that Benjamin went back to the subway the next day and it took a long time before he played elsewhere.

But he did not stay alone on the stage of the Rudolfinum in Prague that Wednesday. He was gradually joined by a guitarist, a drummer and a four-piece string ensemble. But the truth is that none of the instruments stood a chance against his extraordinary, fervent voice. His lirico spinto type tenor is not among the most common – Plácido Domingo possessed it, for example. After all, many of his songs are unusual both in terms of their structure, which deliberately does not respect well-established rules, the need for choruses or a compact footage, and in the fact that Benjamin himself escapes from expected places with his voice and creates different melodies or a different rhythm with it. It is therefore fascinating to watch his vocals struggle with the music. It resembles sea waves crashing against rocks.

On the other hand, at his second Czech concert, it was clear that when the record company stopped talking to him about his work on the second and third album, it hurt him. He himself is logically more satisfied with the newer studio albums, which is also proven by the fact that he is currently preparing a sequel to the latest “And I Have Been” with the title “Part Two”. But that wildness and freedom in expression is unfortunately manifested in the fact that he is currently unable to surpass his debut “At Least For Now”. His more recent work is too loose and doesn’t offer the tight, powerful moments of his Mercury Prize-winning debut. It was also well visible in the fact that, while in the first half of the evening his performance was very focused, even coldly professorial in places, it broke down in the second half. Once he started getting the audience involved, letting some of the newer songs fade out so that the audience would sing his phrases over and over in endless loops, it was magical at first, but by the twentieth repeat it was too much.

It was also clearly visible that the compositions from “At Least For Now” were the ones that clearly sounded the best at the Rudolfinum. Therefore, the highlights of the performance were especially “Adios” with an operatic interlude, in which the author tested almost the entire range of his voice and received the longest applause of the evening. And also the hit “Condolence”, which he taught the audience to sing already at his premiere at Colors Of Ostrava, as well as “London”, in which he sings about the city, whose favor he had to wait for. The exemplary and much-needed silence in the suitably chosen space for his concert was disturbed only by an ambitious young lady who longed for direct contact with the protagonist, and thus with her unsolicited singing disturbed the experience of others even in places where she had nothing to do. The outbursts of laughter at her overmotivation from the audience on the balcony also woke up the elderly gentleman sitting next to her, who had come to the Rudolfinum to take a nap. And ill-mannered spectators could also forgive themselves the animal screams at the end of the set, which were supposed to throw the musician out of the concept. The father of two only dryly responded that he was impressed.

But it doesn’t change the fact that even for the second time, Benjamin Clementine has shown that he is one of the few who pushes music forward with his avant-garde, experimental pop. He is completely different from everyone else. And whether you compare him to his favorite Nina Simone or search for other names, you always end up with the realization that you won’t find another like him. And also that while everyone else just plays more or less good songs to their audience, in his case you feel like you’re witnessing real art.