Channeling the aestheticism of Wes Anderson and the off-kilterism of Yorgos Lanthimos for a ghostly and romantic-inspired audiovisual playground, New Orleans indie folk-pop artist Max Bien Kahn put his fourth solo album on the map with Flowers, released everywhere November 1st, 2024.
With sublime lyrical simplicity, the standout track and August single, “Whatever You Want,” hums a thoughtful offer to a yearned-for lover. “It doesn’t matter much if it’s late / I’ll come whenever you call.” A third-beat emphasis and bubbly synth-like tremolo guitar set this tune apart from its mainstream, highlighting a quirkiness not quite tangible yet very tasteful. One-man games of chess, a dust-throwing clown, and a quick juggling session accentuate Bien Kahn’s step outside of the box with absurdly delightful uniqueness, and the music video exemplifies all of this.
An ultra-mellow and beautifully hypnotic if not slightly eerie melody is delivered in “Ghost Song,” taking listeners into a sweet if not slightly depressing abyss vacant of answers. Bien Kahn tackles the questions that follow loss, confronting a new phantom visitor. “So many questions about the other side / Do you know that you’re gone?” he calls, partaking in a peaceful bike ride against vintage black and white film grain in the music video. A strolling doo-wop jive drives the instrumentation, hinting at the life-long conundrum these questions play on the human psyche.
Hints of western twang and heavy jazz infect “Stranger” for an experimental mystique backed by a broader message — our thoughts and feelings that seem intrinsically unique can be communally similar despite differences in individuality. Before a VHS-style video of Earth’s orbit in the song’s visual counterpart, Bien Kahn and his incorporations of dusty guitar solos and orchestral instrument interludes create a reassuring lullaby with a mystifying edge.
“When I was writing these songs, I was trying to make it more of a spiritual journey,” Bien Kahn says. “Spiritual not as in God, but in connecting to the planet, connecting to your family, connecting to yourself more.”
Created alongside Ross Farbe, Cameron Snyder, and Howe Pearson, Flowers finds its niche in its emergence, pairing folktronica with lap steel in a way that feels historical and futuristic all at the same time. Recorded mainly in Bien Kahn’s living room during the pandemic months of 2020-2021, the album is the first to ever release under No Vinyl Records in New Orleans, which will hold its launch party on November 29th, 2024, at BJ’s Lounge.
A San Francisco native and tenor banjoist in the traditional jazz band Tuba Skinny, Max Bien Kahn has a creative and personable understanding of songwriting, and sonic flexibility that is challenging genre and expectation in inspiring ways.
