Chris Clark makes music, but I often feel like he wants to be making movies. It’s not just that he’s taken to scoring and live-scoring various TV and movie projects as of late. The UK producer has this decade steadily shown an increasing interest in the dramatic, the theatrical, and the classical corners of electronic music.
With his first-ever release on his own newly-christened record label, Throttle Records, Clark is taking on the two largest stalwarts of classical music throughout the centuries: the piano and the harpsichord. E.C.S.T. T.R.A.X. is a double A-side 12-inch featuring two of Clark’s most ardent pieces to date.
Premiering today: “Piano E.C.S.T.” takes a single piano chord and blasts it into a thousand multi-dimensional pieces, creating a piece that Throttle refers to as “a bastardised incarnation of piano hardcore from distant aeons ahead.” Though the elements of Clark’s original claim to fame (ecclesiastic techno) are still subtly present, “Piano E.C.S.T.” would find its way to a soundtrack only in the veins of horror-melodrama.
From Clark:
“This might be a one-off and I don’t even know what this is, but I like the manic-ness of it. It’s unhinged like devotional music can be. I’ve been listening to a lot of Popul Vuh, and although that’s much more ambient and subtle, it’s been an influence. They capture peak ecstatic moments.”
This two-track release marks the beginning of a collaboration between Clark and sample library/virtual instrument company Spitfire Audio, whom Clark says gave him “the keys to a bounty-laden cellar of infinitely tweakable sample libraries.”
In its final moments, “Piano E.C.S.T.” releases a single touch of gentleness: a simple soft progression of cheery chords. It’s a dutiful endnote from Clark — a Hollywood happy ending — letting us know his knack for the suddenly-touching affectivity of electronic production is still very much intact. Listen to the track below and pre-order the whole release (i.e., “Piano E.C.S.T.” and its fraternal twin, “Harpsichord E.C.S.T.”) right here.
E.C.S.T. T.R.A.X. tracklisting:
01. Harpsichord E.C.S.T.
02. Piano E.C.S.T.
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