Cristopher Clark

Pianist Oscar Peterson and flugelhornist Clark Terry always made for a perfect matchup. Their duet set (one of five Peterson made during this period) is quite friendly, witty and hard-swinging. C.T. generally sets the joyous mood and on numbers such as "On a Slow Boat to China," "Shaw 'Nuff," "No Flugel Blues" and "Mack the Knife," the warm-toned flugelhornist shows that he was one of the few who could truly keep up with the remarkable pianist.

As signaled by the March 2014 non-album single "Superscope," Chris Clark opted to turn sharply away from the oft-idyllic, sometimes pastoral sound of his 2012 album Iradelphic and its accompanying Fantasm Planes EP. The producer captioned a trailer for this, his seventh Warp album, with "More Berghain than Guggenheim," referencing Berlin's techno nerve center while alluding to his new material's dancefloor appeal. The majority of Clark indeed supplies numerous robust rhythms that are among his most physical and stimulating. At the same time, the producer applies singular touches, from unpredictable changes in course to treated field recordings - including the sound of a chair scraping a factory floor and stomped snow - that help yield the kind of depth and richness that typify so much of his previous output…

As with previous Clark albums it is an intricate, boffin-clever, topsy-turvy album. But after two albums of pummelling, energy flash-informed electronica, it seems Clark’s determined not to be pigeonholed as that noisy Warp fella. He said as much recently when explaining that he’s "hunting down that elusive paradox. To create something that didn’t sound like what I’ve done before. But was also unmistakably me."
The obvious new development is the simple, looping guitar that’s present almost throughout. Then there’s the massive arsenal of instruments, from vintage Cold War microphones and harpsichords to modular synths, he employs. But more than anything it’s the mood that’s turned. It’s out with angry, abrasive head-bangers and head-scratchers, and in with warm, soothing, elegiac, sun-dappled tracks…

A unique figure in British music, Anne Clark is a singer and lyricist who works in both electronic and acoustic music, performing literate but emotionally charged songs of contemporary life.
On her second LP, 1983's Changing Places, she began collaborating with keyboard player David Harrow, whose pulsating synthesizer work gave Clark's songs a compelling yet hard-edged electronic sheen that suited the often-alienated tone of her lyrics. Harrow's electronics would dominate many of Clark's best-known releases.