Ben&Ben
Ben&Ben

Ben&Ben has finally released its sophomore album "Pebble House, Vol. 1: Kuwaderno" via Sony Music. The Filipino band has nine members namely twin brothers Paolo Benjamin Guico and Miguel Benjamin Guico on acoustic guitars and vocals, Agnes Reoma on bass, Poch Barretto on electric guitar, Keifer Cabugao on violin, Pat Lasaten on keyboard, Toni Muñoz and Andrew de Pano on percussion and Jam Villanueva on drums.

With 13 tracks, the album marks an important chapter in Ben&Ben's history as it captures the songs, stories, messages, experiences, learnings and insights that accompanied its nine members through their self-reflecting but fulfilling journey. Since working on the album, the band has been more open to collaborations that venture beyond the confines of their early work. 

"Each song, much like an entry in one's personal journal, encapsulates something uniquely special to represent something in a certain point in time," Ben&Ben said in a statement. "We felt it would be important for our second album to be a work that brings us closer to our listeners and introduces them more to the wide spectrum of what we are capable of and of who we are as people."

"Pebble House, Vol. 1: Kuwaderno" surpasses expectations in terms of musicality and production, giving way to an exquisite piece of pop songcraft that feels more like a natural progression from their equally compelling debut album "Limasawa Street" rather than a retread of the comfortably familiar. On the second album, Ben&Ben teamed up with the biggest names in the Philippine music industry on six songs, namely "Swimming Pool" featuring Chito Miranda of Parokya Ni Edgar, "Pasalubong" featuring Moira Dela Torre, "Lunod" featuring Zild and juan karlos, "Sabel" featuring KZ Tandingan, "Kapangyarihan" featuring SB19 and "Sugat" featuring Munimuni. 

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"We've always wanted to collaborate with these artists but we were also always a bit too shy to ask," Paolo revelead. "When working on the second album however, our songs and the arrangements gave us confidence to reach out in hopes that these collaborators would likewise believe in our music enough to work with us. Thankfully, they did and we are immensely grateful for their generosity in sharing their hard work and talent with us."

Pre-production for the album began in the latter part of April 2021. The production phase continued with Ben&Ben recording with some of their artist collaborators towards the end of May 2021 and wrapped up with other songs in the album in mid-June 2021.

With Jean Paul Verona and Sam Marquez involved in co-producing, mixing and co-engineering duties, Ben&Ben wrote, arranged and produced "Pebble House, Vol. 1: Kuwaderno." Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer Leon Zervos, who has worked with the likes of Maroon 5, Pink, and Rihanna, headed the overall mastering of the tracks.

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