Hermit
- a person who lives alone, especially to devote himself to religion.

Hedonist
- someone motivated by desires for sensual pleasures

On 30th January 2012, Jackalope Records will be releasing Jim Kroft´s upcoming sophomore album ‘The Hermit And The Hedonist'. Produced by Laura Marling drummer Matt Ingram, it is one of the last albums to be mixed at The Kink´s famed Konk Studios (by Richard Wilkinson, Adele/Kaiser Chiefs).

‘The Hermit and the Hedonist' is an album of brutal honesty, self exploration and cultural commentary. It is the story of a man ignoring the musical fashions of the day and attempting to chronicle his own voice.
Reacting to rising rental prices and unrealistic costs, Kroft left London for Berlin in 2007, determined to commit to the craft of songwriting full time. With no where to stay on arrival he was given shelter in an abandoned building by the Tacheles Arts Community, a cabal of artists and squatters in the East, with whom he came to live. With the sense that there was no past to return to, and no future in the collapsed music industry, he lived during this time a life of extremes - simultaneously monk and raver, hermit and hedonist.

Earning his living playing residencies in White Trash and Zapata, Kroft embraced the excess, partying and epicurean lifestyle of modern Berlin. And he simultaneously experienced its opposite - the hangovers, longing and crushing isolation of an artist in exile. The songs for the new album emerged as he sought to make sense of this siamese lifestyle, and to forge a new path. The songwriting process thus became a chronology of his discoveries.

Jim Kroft has had a year which has seen him rise from the underground into national attention in the United Kingdom and Germany. In the UK first single ‘Memoirs from the Afterlife' received strong support from radio including plays on Absolute Radio, BBC Radio 2, BBC London Radio and 6 Music. In Germany the song went into the Airplay Top 100 Chart for 2 months leading to supports with Canadian star Peaches, and Airborne Toxic Event.

After the closure of the Tacheles, Kroft set his sights on emerging from the underground. Fearing he would be caught between outsider status in Germany and exile from the UK, debut album ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea' was released in 2010.

Inspired by the positive reaction, Kroft found himself in a writing gold rush in which time second album ‘The Hermit and the Hedonist' was quickly penned. It is a soliloquy to the impenetrable lows and imperious highs of a songwriter´s attempt to bring his music from mattress to mainstream. However, during writing process, Kroft felt that his experience was changing from something very intimate to something more universal and reflective of the wider human narrative.

‘The Hermit and the Hedonist' explores a world where we project a perfected "cyber self" of ourselves in place of our own true identity (Canary in the Coalmine), the sense that all human war and suffering comes "wars within the skull" (Modern Monk), and the recognition that it is only own selves who can aid in society´s healing (Waiting for a Healing). At its heart is the belief that society will only keep evolving with a greater understanding of itself and between its peoples.

There is a period in an artist´s life when he asks himself whether he has the courage to face the great questions, and to shape his own response to them. "The Hermit and the Hedonist" is Jim Kroft´s attempt to do so.

Download 'Waiting For A Healin' for free below for a taster