| Anne Clarke, who opened a new chapter in electronic music in the 1980s, is now recording an audiophile album featuring acoustic instruments. Exciting. And the sound is awesome! |
The Audiophile Recording
Anne Clark “Borderland”
She is considered one of the pioneers of electronic music and the New Wave in the 80s. But Anne Clark also dedicated herself to other art forms such as poetry. But she also cultivates a great love for acoustically influenced music - as becomes clear here in the wonderful interaction with harp and violin (Ulla van Daelen & Justin Ciuche). And because the work was also lovingly recorded by Northeim's flagship label Stockfisch, Anne Clark's "Borderland" is our beguiling audiophile album of the week. For the sake of completeness, I have to add that the full title of the album Anne Clark with Ulla van Daelen & Justin Ciuche is "Borderland" - Foud Music For A Lost World. But I'll leave it in the short form during the text.
“Excuse me, can you please tell me where Hope Road is?
road of hope.
Never heard of it? Ok, thanks anyway.
Forgiveness! Excuse me? Oh, 'sorry... Excuse
me, can you please tell me how to get to Hope Road?
Road of Hope.”
This is how one of their best-known songs "Hope Road" begins, acoustically framed by sounds and samples, from their class album "Hopeless Cases" from 1987. A typical Clark piece that fits into their pioneering work in the 80s in the field of electronic music and their role as a poet. But there was and is more, much more, that distinguishes Anne Clark as an artist and as a person. Musically, the 62-year-old has repeatedly penetrated the cosmos of acoustically influenced music and given enthralling concerts in unusual places such as the Passionskirche in Berlin Kreuzberg in 1994 (album "Psychometry") - and again this summer.
At a young age, she brought fresh bands and musicians such as Paul Weller or Siouxsie And The Banshees to London's "Warehouse Theater" before finally taking the stage herself, playing "I'm Cabaret Futura" with Depeche Mode. The Irish-British musician loves spoken words, the melancholy, and the power that can make lyrical depth possible. And now Borderland. An acoustic album is full of power, magic, and energy. A minimalist work, if you will, for the more quiet moments. Difficult to describe without getting into flowery raptures.
Let's let them say it themselves:
"I want to take you / or rather bring you closer / closer to things / closer to yourself / deeper / Borderland is a place where two / or even more meet the world / to discover something new / something ancient / something out of time /
This brings us to the songs, better the pieces.
The Music of Anne Clark's "Borderland"
First of all: Gunter Pauler and the Stockfisch crew did a great job. Once again. Because the audiophile label spirits captured the delicate liaison between violin, harp, and Anne Clark's sonorous voice formidably: spatial ambiance, resolution/plasticity, color shading, and fine dynamics are brilliant, as is physicality. "Many thanks to Günter and everyone at Stockfisch Records for giving us the three of us the opportunity to make this journey," said Anne Clark, praising the sessions in Northeim. And further: "In a place and time when so many of us have so little control over circumstances and events, I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to develop ideas and themes around language and music and to explore
When harp sounds are involved, many hi-fi fans will probably think of Andreas Vollenweider's undulating waves of sound from the 80s. While the Swiss likes to pluck and caress his instrument acoustically in ambient realms, Ulla van Daelen focuses more on the classic flow, including a Celtic touch, as here with Anne Clark. By the way, we had already introduced Vollenweider and van Daelen solo.
But back to the common tunes of the three musicians in the Stockfisch Studio. The 13 pieces seem saturated with an inner radiance. Softened with pastel touches of delicately strung violin and harp. And intoned credibly by Anne Clark's warming, haunting voice, without appearing dominant. And peppered with dazzling poetry. A finely fused interplay, carried by his own poetry but also by lines by ancestors.
The Stolen Child was written by Irish Literature Nobel Prize winner William Butler Yeats.
… Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand
For the word's more full of weeping
Then you can understand …
image credit: Qobuz
"The Bluebird" was written by Mary Coleridge, who was way ahead of her time at the end of the century. But the original compositions are just as impressive: the solo parts of the harp and violin touch the soul. Overall, the sessions were quite a bold undertaking: “My co-writer and band member, violinist Justin Ciuche, approached me with the idea of going into the studio with harpist Ulla van Daelen and recording a complete 'live' session – without a plan and without prior arrangements, other than a few notes with ideas for my lyrics,” says Anne Clarke. It turned out to be a wonderfully coherent whole.
Anne Clark "Borderland" is published by Stockfisch / in-akustik as hybrid CD/SACD and as HiRes download (FLAC 24Bit/88kHz with pdf booklet) or DMM double LP with four-sided inlay sheet
