“Extraordinary” Mojo
“Gently exquisite” The Guardian
“Full of depth” The Telegraph
“Utterly electric” Cerys Matthews
“Underestimate Josienne Clarke at your peril” No Depression Magazine
“Clarke’s songwriting conjures darkly beautiful imagery” Loud & Quiet
“Clarke lets her inner strength crackle on the assertive 'Sit Out'” Beats Per Minute
“Searching for a tune / That I haven’t sung before / One that’s lesser used and lesser sad / But somehow maybe more,” award-winning singer-songwriter Josienne Clarke sings on ‘Super Recogniser’, the opening track of her new album, A Small Unknowable Thing. For the first time since her early beginnings, Clarke is flying solo. No label, no musical partner, no producer. Clarke is in complete control of her songwriting, arranging, producing, release schedule and musical direction. It’s not only enabled her to find a tune she’s never sung before, but it’s also lesser sad and more – because for the first time, Clarke isn’t being told what to do.
“I realised that I had to be so explicit in explaining how much I’d done in order to get credit for it,” Clarke explains. “I started saying ‘No, actually, I did all of this, can we put my name on this thing?’ It’s really resisted – it’s as if I’m being an arrogant megalomaniac for wanting the credit for stuff that I did. Now, I just do it all by myself. If there isn’t another name on it, then there can’t be a misappropriation.”
A Small Unknowable Thing is, at least in part, about recognising there are still existing structures to keep women in their place – but it’s also about having the courage to break those structures down too. While the themes might feel familiar to her fans, the musical journey will not, with Clarke taking in a wide range of new and diverse influences across the album – from Adrianne Lenker’s ‘Hours Were The Birds’, IDLES’ ‘Colossus’, Radiohead’s ‘Airbag’ to Phoebe Bridgers ‘Garden Song’, The Beastie Boys’ ‘Remote Control’ and Sandy Denny’s ‘Listen, Listen’ and more, the album’s touchstones span a vast musical collage of anger and hope.
Clarke’s stunning, Joni Mitchell-like voice is allowed to soar on the gorgeous ‘Super Recogniser’ with sparse, minimalistic guitar allowing for a renewed focus on Clarke’s poetic lyricism and storytelling. At times, songs on A Small Unknowable Thing take you out of harsh realities and into hopeful daydreams, finding positives from the negatives via synth-folk and surprising, unexpected sonic experimentation which pushes the boundary of indie-folk to daring new areas.
The accompanying video, by cinematographer Alec Bowman_Clarke, was inspired by a scene from Robocop. "You know that bit in the first movie where he first comes online and tests his vision & tracking, tries out the gun in his leg and then gets up & storms out to go find his old life and take revenge on Clarence Boddicker and the gang of baddies who hurt him? Well this is a bit like that, but without the acid baths & exploding cars," he explains. "We find our hero rebirthing from her pupa, emerging, testing out possible movement & her odd perception of light, running critical systems checks. She's plagued by memories of a life and career ridden roughshod over by the careless hooves of the music industry. She was a workhorse in a song farm, left with all the blame & none of the credit, so she retreated into the safe, fleshy chrysalis of her own real-life". The video for 'Super Recogniser' documents Clarke's glorious transformation into a person to be reckoned with, a butterfly fully in charge of her own faculties & armed to the teeth with song.
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