The Thicket, by Yas Clarke

The Thicket

by Yas Clarke

supported by

	/

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
CD with full colour fold out of text score and painting

Includes unlimited streaming of The Thicket via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 7 days

£10 GBP or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£5 GBP or more

1.	The Thicket (Day 1) 12:38	buy track
2.	The Thicket (Day 2) 10:29	buy track
3.	The Thicket (Day 3) 08:04	buy track
4.	The Thicket (Day 4) 09:03	buy track

about

A striking new work from sound artist Yas Clarke, The Thicket is an intricate, rhythmic and melodic text score, composed for four voices. In the context of climate change, the composition probes the limits of human capacities for understanding our position in the natural world, the feedback loops of consciousness, the construction of myth, the processes of categorisation and delineation, the creation of self as a discontinuity in nature.

Written in arcane vernacular, The Thicket narrates an ambiguous pilgrimage into the wilderness; at times resembling an orphaned passage from one of William Morris’ early fantasy novels or a Doris Lessing science fiction, at others becoming abstract and non-verbal, like a syllabic tabla score or the alien opera of The Fifth Element. As the text progresses it becomes increasingly abstract and describes the dissolving of the human identity, both through its content and in the structure of language. Words break down into syllables, textures and tones and become musical in their presentation. What emerges is a unique a cappella work that opens up a speculative channel between Chaucer and Bob Cobbing.

Stretching language from a fragmented linear narrative to churning minimalist cascades, Clarke's text is delivered such that each performer takes one word each, cycling the whole text between them in a strict order and rhythm. Each singer is conducted by a distinct in-ear audio click track, a process which allows for an elaborate structuring of the four-part score; phrases, words and syllables layered into elaborate rhythms and harmonies that would otherwise be impossible to perform; unmanipulated voices generating phasing patterns and repetitions which are almost reminiscent of early Steve Reich tape works.

Yas Clarke is a sound artist and composer experimenting with form and process within live and recorded sound. His work explores the human relationship to its environment, probing the boundaries between organic and synthetic; human and natural; continuous and discrete. He is best known for his work in live-art and experimental theatre, working with artists such as Nic Green, Cade and MacAskill, Action Hero and Simone Kenyon. Yas’s live work has toured to festivals and arts centres around the world and his recorded work has aired on stations including WFMU, BBC Radio 3 & BBC Radio 4.

credits

released November 22, 2023

Written and composed by Yas Clarke

Performed by
Beni Evans
Kate Evans
Katharine Hall
Jo Hellier

Artwork by Asiya Clarke
Mixed and mastered by Dylan Mallett
Print co-designed by Isaac Stacey

license

about

TBC Editions Bristol, UK

TBC EDITIONS is a label releasing limited-edition runs of experimental audio and film work. Evolved out of The Brunswick Club, a community of artists, musicians, filmmakers and performers, who came together in 2017-2019 to occupy a former working-men’s club in central Bristol. ... more

contact / help

Contact TBC Editions

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like The Thicket, you may also like:

Subtle Body Dawn
by Anna Wise

featured on Bandcamp Radio May 23, 2023
go to album
42 Days 四十二天
by Southeast of Rain 东南有雨

This stunning, beautiful project from Fujian duo Southeast of Rain 东南有雨 blends field recordings with rippling notes from the pipa. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 8, 2021
go to album
As If It Were Forever
by Anna Wise

Kendrick Lamar collaborator Anna Wise unveils a debut that is edgy and soulful in equal measure. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 24, 2019
go to album
Breadwoman & Other Tales
by Anna Homler

featured on Bandcamp Radio Dec 1, 2015
go to album
Psychedelic Anxiety
by frances chang

The New York-based artist makes bedroom pop for hitting snooze on your phone’s fourth alarm of the morning. Bandcamp Album of the Day Feb 16, 2024
go to album
Whiplash
by Asha Sheshadri

The ambient composer creates pieces reminiscent of short stories by Breece D’J Pancake, assembling familiar sounds in ways that render them haunted and suddenly unfamiliar. Bandcamp Album of the Day Nov 8, 2023
go to album
Autumn Fair
by Autumn Fair

The creator behind Recital celebrates 10 years by doing what he does best: calling on his friends to cut the kind of record he loves to hear. Bandcamp Album of the Day Nov 1, 2022
go to album