In a world where we are encouraged to examine our inner selves, what would it feel like to immerse ourselves intimately in the stories of others? To hear about people who have experienced moments of magical connection – poets, artists, anthropologists, trailblazers and ordinary souls among them – and to lose ourselves in their lives as they emerge from spellbinding sound worlds?

Welcome to “&” – Ampersand – a beautiful new project from Bastille’s Dan Smith. A collection of story songs that explores the worlds of startling women and men, fed by instinctive collaborations with friends and family, it emerged after Dan found himself with an empty diary for the first time in years.

“We didn’t have anything booked in. No gigs. No tours. No plans. So, I just started chasing these ideas and scratching a musical itch,” he explains. This itch spoke to the music he listened to as a child – things his parents played like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Simon Garfunkel and Bob Dylan, and the songs his mum used to play for her friends by Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen, which have resonated with him loudly through his life  – and to artists he loved growing into adulthood, like Laura Marling, Anohni and Regina Spector.

The songs on “&” uncover people misunderstood in myth, culture, and society. We meet fascinating individuals neglected by mainstream history, whose stories are often not given enough time and space to breathe and sing.

A love of music as a channel for storytelling, shared in the spirit of gentility and intimacy, is what “&” is about. It being an album performed in organic, natural ways with cherished friends and family only adds to its soul, filling it with warmth and the gorgeous, soft energy of connection.“&” is a collection of songs about looking out at the world, disappearing into other lives rather than into ourselves, and about the humanity that can crackle and shimmer as a consequence. And as Dan sings: “If it’s gonna make us happy, if it’s gonna set us free, if it’s gonna hold us steady/ Then it’s what we need.”