Tara Clerkin Trio - On The Turning Ground Vinyl LP

Tara Clerkin Trio return to World of Echo with a 5-song collection of quixotic, emotional redolence. If their musical output has been a little sparse during those in-between years, limited to a few solo ventures and an astonishing ten minute long piece as a trio, their time has otherwise been richly spent: continuous writing and recording, live performances, a cultivation of local and more far-flung artistic connections, and a monthly NTS show that, through the voice of others, speaks to their own unorthodox interests. It's the conflux of that winding activity that leads indirectly to On The Turning Ground, 26 minutes of probing, thoughtful composition that draws from no one specific source. Their inspirations might be centreless, but the trio still possess a very obvious anchor in the form of their hometown, Bristol: a city of multitudes, heterogenous and vibrant in such a way as to allow it to renew and remake time and again. Tara Clerkin Trio drink from that same well, duly reflecting a rich musical heritage built on fwd-facing electronic subcultures and experimental urges. The two instrumental pieces that bookend the EP display an increasing mastery of compositional space: 'Brigstow' and 'Once Around' both emanate an interstitial quality that's not so much after- as in-between-hours, miniature dub-folk symphonies held together by the kind of tacit understanding that remains the preserve of only the closest of family units. If those two tracks are shaped by a sense of shifting temporality, then the three vocal-led pieces that comprise the record's core feel like a gentle ossifying of aesthetic into their own unique form of avant-pop: undeniable re-directions of that late 90s impulse to bend pop sensibilities into off-centre terrain, to render the familiar new again.