Group Listening / Clarinet & Piano: Selected Works Vol. 1 / PRAH Recordings

Stephen Black and Paul Jones cite Simon Jeffes and Virginia Astley as sources of inspiration for their collaborative Clarinet & Piano: Selected Works Vol. 1. A set of Modern Chamber Music covers of an eclectic list of the duo`s favourites. Eight pieces where the main musical points of reference are indeed Jeffes` Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Astley`s Ambient landmark, From Gardens Where We Feel Secure.

Their translation of Disasterpeace`s bass-heavy, 8-bit score for the contemporary horror, It Follows, is a field recording of birds, and insects. Cuckoos and bees. Running water. A park on a Summer`s day. Virginia`s idyllic childhood remembered. While their version of Euro Chid`s The Dog dissolves into Tom Waits hurdy-gurdy, and Hendrix-like feedback. The outsider Synth-Pop ballad becoming the weather breaking at a country fair. The use of clarinet brings comparisons with the Ives Brothers` Woo. The minimalist piano arrangements, Wim Mertens. Classical, Folk, and Jazz themes mix throughout – a la PCO`s recently reissued Union Cafe, as they take on Electronic pioneers Raymond Scott, Roedelius and Eno. Re-imagining Pastoral Kosmische, New Age and Prog / Art Rock. The acoustically strummed reading of Arthur Russell`s A Little Lost coming closest to the playfulness of something like Music For A Found Harmonium.

To be honest, the thing I love / loved about Clarinet & Piano: Selected Works Vol. 1 was not just the original music, but the classics it introduced me to. Robert Wyatt`s beautiful Maryan in particular.

Robert Wyatt – Maryan