Description
Clark's album of plaintive beauty, eerie wyrd arcadian horror and childlike outsider music epitomises his constant ability to flip-the-script and coherently organise an abundance of new ideas - Mysterious and morbidly beautiful pieces driven by piano, harpsichord, clarinet, strings, electronics and voice are interspersed with fabulously unusual and highly original curveballs:.
Odd-in-a-brilliant-way, the faux naive 'Kiri's Glee', evokes traveling minstrels of yore accidentally eating the wrong 'shrooms, and 'Coffin Knocker' has diffracted psych feel, like David Axelrod's work with the Electric Prunes, but chopped, screwed and scorched.
'Forebode Knocker' is darkly funky, like the kind of lost diggers' nugget unearthed and sampled by RZA, whilst the sonically-perfect 'Primary Pluck' unfurls exquisitely, swaying slowly ever forward like a funeral march.
'Kiri Variations' started life as the score to the BAFTA-nominated TV program 'Kiri', but only a small (and highly effective) portion of the music recorded was used - intentionally sparingly - by director Euros Lyn. That first incarnation has since grown and morphed into something entirely of its own being; a proper artist album.
The record allows simplicity and playfulness to shine through: "It's a skeleton of an album, reduced to bare essentials, although it started out rather dense - making it succinct takes time." explains Clark. "Certain parts are also what you could call anti muso - for example the recorder on 'Kiri's Glee' is totally out of tune - but it sounds so colourful. I can't resist the primary paint of acoustic instruments; it's an antidote to frictionless digital music. I want people to listen to this in the same way they would read a set of Roald Dahl short stories; bitter-sweet tales with hooks and teeth and unexpected macabre twists. Proper Witch vibes."
Packaging: LP, Printed On Reverse Board, With Black Inners. Illustrated by David Foldvari