Let’s say in music, which is what interests me, it’s fair to say that process has always involved finding things you are interested in and studying them as part of the learning process. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on this idea of finding your voice as part of the artistic process, within any creative field. It’s not like I’m going to get a saxophone on my next album and just do jazz scales, but there’s something about absorbing the spirit of a certain character. Like Clark goes jazz… Subliminally you take elements off it. I’d recommend doing that heartily to anyone but at the same time I’m not going to release any of the music I made that was kind of researching Thelonious Monk and that era of jazz. That’s the only way you can grow really as an artist.
There’s something about working out exactly where you stand musically, in terms of what your output is, and then investigating the absolute opposite of that, until you become obsessed with it. I haven’t really spent enough time with that one though, and I just got really obsessed with Thelonious Monk for precisely the reason that he was sort of the opposite of what I was doing. There are lots of albums I could have done, and I was thinking of doing Talk Talk, the Eden album. I wasn’t being deliberately facetious, it’s not like I only listen to jazz… it’s a very particular taste. I think the albums so far have tended to be more modern albums… In fact, I think you might have picked the first jazz album. Discussing the album over Skype from Italy to Germany, Clark touches on the personal meanings the record holds, the importance of challenging your artistic practice and views as well as what made Monk such a unique voice in the jazz world. It’s also the first jazz album in our On Record series, if I’m not mistaken. Released in 1965, it was produced by Teo Macero, and is widely regarded as one of Monk’s greatest piano albums. From his 2001 debut Clarence Park to his most recent release, Feast/Beast – a collection of remixes by and for the now Berlin-based producer and musician – Clark has kept listeners guessing while refining a take on electronic music that has encompassed the weird, the brutal and the bodily invigorating.įor our On Record feature, Clark chose the Thelonious Monk album Solo Monk.
With over ten years of releases and work behind him, Chris Clark has remained one of Warp Records’ most steady artists while managing to continuously evolve his sound. On Record is a regular feature on FACT in which we ask an artist we admire to pick a record that means a lot to them, and use it as a jumping off point for a conversation.
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