VINCE CLARKE
Songs Of Silence (Mute)
“Nobody in my household is particularly interested in what I get up to in the studio,” says Vince Clarke, on the making of Songs Of Silence. “Even the cat used to leave after an hour or so of listening to drones.” While Clarke’s cat may not have been a fan, this debut solo album from the Erasure songwriter and Depeche Mode founder member has a wealth of wordless wonder to offer human ears. Its soundscapes are formed from a single note – one of two rules Clarke imposed, the other being to make modular synthesiser Eurorack his only sound machine – that unfold across dusty planets, sanctified architecture, and the point between waking and dreaming.
RELATED:
Descriptors like ‘spine-tingling’ and ‘atmospheric’, which you’d expect well-crafted dark synth ambience to evoke, don’t adequately encompass what Clarke has created: a masterclass in marrying the simple with the sublime. Top to bottom, Songs Of Silence is a uniquely transformative listen, but Red Planet, with its slow, plodding pace, interjections of angelic song (opera singer Caroline Joy) and electric crackles; along with The Lamentations Of Jeremiah, layering Reed Hays’ sinewy cello over the low hum of a sustained, electronic note with occasional booming footsteps (or so they sound), are personal favourites.
This is a meditative experience deserving of your full concentration and consciousness: a far cry from the lo-fi chill you might work or sleep to, Songs Of Silence feels like what it might be like to connect your mind with an Eldritch god, a dangerous bliss to both fear and marvel at.
words HANNAH COLLINS
