Clarice Jensen’s latest long-player, her 4th solo work, takes its title from a poem by Austrian writer Rainer Maria Rilke, “What steps forth, In Holiday Clothing, Out Of The Great Darkness.” The album is Jensen’s second since relocating from Brooklyn to the solitude of the Berkshire Mountains, and her new surroundings certainly seemed to have informed, shaped the recordings. The release also finds Jensen refocusing on her primary instrument, the cello, and reigning in the electronic elements of her process. The latter are limited to loops, multi-tracking and subtle shimmering pedal treatments, low frequency oscillations, that in places blur the space between strings. 

The opening, titular piece is a near 13-minute epic. Jensen’s bowing initially stopping and starting prior to introducing a countering lead. Its story expanding, evolving, with each line responding to the other like dancers in a ballet. Mixing emotions. Romantic, definitely. There is joy, but heartbreak seems, feels, not far away. Moving through moods, memories, as the mind does in quiet moments. Highs and lows. They’re all interconnected. It raises an extraordinarily high bar for the rest of the set.

The music’s narrative quality, and names such as From A To B, suggest travel, the desire, need to take flight from something that, perhaps, can’t be escaped. Something that, rather, must be faced. As if trying to out run some form of loss. A shadow that won’t be shaken. A hurt that can’t quite be left behind. Tracks moving through cycling repeats, muted drones and pulses. 1, 2 slowly surfaces as a resonant, ringing harmonic hum. The opening number reappears as a shorter, and at the outset, more melancholy reprise. However, small figures in the background, that echo, distant whispers of Max Richter’s On The Nature Of Daylight, become bolder, stronger, taking over. Like hope beating defeat. Rising to sharp, orchestral strokes, before suddenly hitting halt. The theme returning, only more urgent, determined, seesawing, scurrying, racing, in the closing composition, Unity. 

Jensen describes the collection as “a conceptual exploration of what solo means.” Maybe this applies to more than just music. Left truly alone, we all have our demons to deal with. Solutions, resolutions, to seek. 

Clarice Jensen’s In Holiday Clothing Out Of The Great Darkness can be ordered directly from 130701.