On 26 March 2021 the ambitiously multifaceted musician/composer Clark presents his chillingly affecting ninth studio album Playground In A Lake, on which he broadens horizons and tries new things, with profound results. An intriguingly suggestive title, esoteric concept(s) and disparately unusual but cohesively fused components are chiselled into an effective, concise and painstakingly curated whole. Released as a single on 26 January, "Small" will offer a first glimpse into Clark's playground. Soloist Nathaniel Timoney delivers a grim message with an angelic ring and a haunting hook on one of the few vocal tracks of the upcoming album.
With its orchestral tropes and release on Deutsche Grammophon, Playground In A Lake may seem a departure to the casual observer, but is in fact a more illuminated development of clues from past releases. Seeds planted in Kiri Variations' bucolic noir, the piano vignettes from Clarence Park, the folky wonder of Iradelphic, the strings on Body Riddle and Clark's skewed symphonic rework of Max Richter's Path 5 have all grown in prominence and vivid detail.
"I've always wanted to record strings, but feel there's this baggage with classical music. Even though I've taught myself how to read and write sheet music, I'm not putting that genre, or any other genre, on a silver platter. I'm not from an institutionalised contingent who deem a narrow range of instruments ‘the real stuff' and everything else worthless commercial pop. I take what I admire from that world and then move on. I'm just using it as another colour.
"So, I started thinking about my favourite kind of string arrangements, like Scott Walker records, where they exist amongst contrasting elements. Then I started to approach the album from a dark folk place, also with this heavy 70s synth element. Then came the improvisation of musique concrète, and some of my favourite modern classical and sound design obsessions, and then it clicked," proclaims Clark.