Benge's Long-Lost Striped Light Album Finally Set for Release After Nearly 20 Years
Nearly two decades after the project was first conceived, electronic musician and producer Benge is finally set to release For All This Beauty, the long-awaited album from his collaborative project Striped Light.
Due for release on 6 November 2026 via MemeTune, the nine-track album brings together an impressive collection of vocalists and musicians, including Hannah Peel, Elizabeth Bernholz (Gazelle Twin), Sam Genders of Tunng, Serafina Steer, Juliana Venter and Tara Busch of I Speak Machine.
The recordings also feature contributions from session bassist Kuma Harada, whose credits include work with Van Morrison and Billy Ocean, Minimoog player Max Middleton, known for his work with Jeff Beck and Kate Bush, and lead guitarist Mike Lindsay of Tunng.
Adding another significant connection to the project, electronic music pioneer John Foxx created the artwork for the album, while Eoin Richardson illustrated the band.
The album's release represents the culmination of a project that began all the way back in 2007.
A Project Nearly Two Decades in the Making
Benge — also known as Benjamin David Edwards — has spent much of his career exploring the possibilities of electronic music.
Known for his work with Creep Show, Wrangler and John Foxx and the Maths, as well as his extensive solo output and production work, Benge has developed a reputation for his fascination with vintage synthesisers, drum machines and analogue recording equipment.
His interest in electronic music began at an early age.
Growing up in the 1970s, Benge became fascinated by the possibilities of synthesisers after a friend of the family donated a small modular synthesiser to the school his parents ran from their family home.
That early fascination eventually developed into a bedroom recording studio and, later, a substantial collection of vintage electronic equipment.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, analogue synthesisers and recording equipment had fallen out of fashion, creating an opportunity for Benge to rescue machines that others were discarding.
His collection continued to grow, while he began releasing instrumental electronic music and established his own independent label, Expanding Records.
From Instrumental Electronics to Electronic Pop
Although Benge had developed a reputation for experimental instrumental electronic music, he also maintained a strong affection for the electronic pop music of the 1970s and 1980s.
Striped Light emerged from that fascination.
Benge wanted to explore a more song-based approach, creating electronic backing tracks that could provide the foundation for vocal performances.
In 2007, he began looking for a suitably experimental lyricist who could help turn the instrumental ideas into songs.
Through the network of musicians and artists surrounding his underground studio complex in Shoreditch, East London, Benge knew Mike Lindsay and Sam Genders from Tunng.
Genders' distinctive approach to lyrics immediately appealed to Benge, and the pair began working together.
Reflecting on those early sessions, Genders recalls being excited by the unusual environment in which the songs were created.
“It was one of my first co-writing jobs and I was super excited to be sitting in this black box room with floor to ceiling vintage synths on every wall.”
The songwriting process was deliberately spontaneous.
Genders explains that he would sing melody and lyric ideas while Benge developed the music, with the songs coming together quickly.
“The writing was very stream of consciousness without having any particularly fixed meanings.”
The result became the foundation for what would eventually become For All This Beauty.
Finding the Voices
With the electronic foundations and songs taking shape, Benge began recording different versions with a wide range of singers.
Over several years, scores of vocal performances were auditioned and recorded before the final collection of artists was assembled.
Each vocalist brought a different personality and musical perspective to the project.
Many of the artists involved had crossed paths with Benge through his work at MemeTune Studios in Shoreditch, where he had produced or co-produced some of their earlier projects.
Among them was Los Angeles-based artist Tara Busch, the musician behind I Speak Machine.
Busch had previously worked with Benge and John Foxx in London, and in 2011 Benge travelled to Los Angeles for a month to continue work on the project.
He hired a vintage recording studio and recorded the first batch of songs with Busch there.
Looking back at the material, Busch describes the songs Motorcade and Between the Trees as a cinematic tribute to 1980s Los Angeles.
“A deeply decadent love letter to 1980s Hollywood.”
Her description captures much of the aesthetic that runs through For All This Beauty: vintage electronic textures, cinematic imagery and a fascination with the sounds and atmosphere of an earlier era.
A Cast of Electronic Music's Finest
The album eventually brought together a remarkable cast.
Hannah Peel contributes vocals, alongside Gazelle Twin's Elizabeth Bernholz, Serafina Steer, Juliana Venter and Tara Busch.
Bernholz and Steer also contributed their own lyrics to songs built around Benge's electronic compositions.
Steer remembers the project as being closely connected to the creative community that developed around Benge's Shoreditch studio.
“I have really fond memories of making the tracks with Benge at his studio in Coronet Street, Shoreditch.”
For Steer, the record represents a snapshot of an unusually creative period.
“The record for me represents the ‘scene’ of amazing creativity and people around that studio and Benge.”
Then Everything Went on Hold
Despite the recordings being largely completed, Striped Light was eventually put aside.
Benge's career continued to move in multiple directions, with numerous collaborations, production projects, solo albums and television music work taking up his time.
He became involved in projects with artists including John Foxx, Neil Arthur of Blancmange and Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire, as well as the group Wrangler.
The Striped Light recordings remained unfinished and largely forgotten.
For years, the album sat on the back burner.
That changed in 2023.
Benge's manager, Steve Malins, asked what had happened to the project.
Benge went back into the archives and retrieved the old mix files.
Rather than sounding dated, the recordings appeared to have gained something with time.
The pair decided that the material was worth revisiting, beginning a new phase of work on the album.
Giving the Record a New Life
The tracks were remixed at the newly refurbished MemeTune Studio, which at the time was based in Cornwall.
The studio featured a classic Neve mixing desk alongside Benge's extensive collection of vintage 1980s effects units and recording equipment.
The old recordings could now be revisited with fresh ears and modern perspective while retaining the analogue character that had defined the project from its beginning.
Nearly 20 years after the first songs were written, Striped Light finally had an album.
For All This Beauty
The resulting record, For All This Beauty, is described as a celebration of the electronic pop music that inspired Benge while drawing on the talents of an unusually diverse group of collaborators.
It combines vintage synthesisers, electronic production, live instrumentation and a collection of distinctive vocal performances.
Rather than attempting to recreate the past, the album looks back at the electronic music of the 1970s and 1980s through the perspective of artists who have spent decades developing their own approaches to experimental and alternative music.
The result is a collection of electronic alt-pop that has taken almost 20 years to reach its final form.
As Juliana Venter puts it:
“Do not seek to see the full light of truth in one instance. Approach it step by step, with humility and patience.”
It is a fitting sentiment for an album that has taken the long way around.
‘Atoms’ Launches the Album Campaign
Striped Light's album campaign begins with ‘Atoms’, featuring Tara Busch of I Speak Machine.
The track arrives ahead of the full album and provides the first opportunity for listeners to hear the completed project.
Busch is also set to perform with Cabaret Voltaire alongside Benge during their final US tour this month, adding another connection between the Striped Light project and Benge's wider musical activities.
Release Details
Striped Light – For All This Beauty
Label: MemeTune
Release date: 6 November 2026
Format: Album
Tracks: 9
After nearly two decades of recording, shelving, rediscovering and reworking the material, For All This Beauty is finally ready to step out of the shadows.
What began in a Shoreditch studio in 2007 has become a meeting point for a remarkable group of electronic and alternative musicians — bringing together vintage technology, experimental songwriting and a collection of distinctive voices.
For Benge, it represents the completion of an idea that has been waiting almost 20 years to be heard.
Striped Light's For All This Beauty is released via MemeTune on 6 November 2026 Pre-order the album Here
https://youtu.be/h9tXvZCsBLA?si=3G5hifV0vnsPoHNg
Image provided by Zoe Miller