Tara Clerkin Trio – Somewhere Good

Description

With two extraordinary mini-albums – ‘In Spring’ (2021) and ‘On The Turning Ground’ (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, ‘Somewhere Good’ is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic approaches, Clerkin & co. color in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes – never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification – allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.

The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song.