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\u201cLife Is…\u201d marks the international debut of Belgian singer\/pianist Susan Clynes, on New York based\u00a0 MoonJune Records. This release was compiled from three live concerts done at two different locations, each one with a unique band configuration.<\/p>\n
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The Archiduc, an historic Art Deco bar in Brussels dating back to 1937, served as the backdrop for two of these performances. The first was done in trio format with Nico Chkifi on drums and Pierre Mottet on bass. The second was a more intimate solo performance at the Library of The Cultural Center of Bree. The third and final performance saw the return to the Archiduc, this time as a duet with Simon Lenski on cello. Each band configuration provided its own framework and pallet of tonal colors for these diverse sound portraits.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA Good Man\u201d and \u201cIleana\u2019s Song\u201d make playful use of the drumkit and bass. These clever songs lie somewhere between Slapp Happy-era Dagmar Krause, Elaine Di Falco\u2019s work with Thinking Plague, Annette Peacock and early period Kristin Hersh in her band, Throwing Muses. The chiefly instrumental piece, \u201cLes Larmes\u201d, a composition about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is brimming with emotional expression making excellent use of the cello as a universal human voice.<\/p>\n
The distilled and emotive songs for voice with piano accompaniment bring to mind such undervalued luminaries as Laura Nyro and Essra Mohawk. Susan\u2019s piano work runs the gamut from such radio-friendly performers as Tori Amos and Fiona Apple, briefly dipping into Tony Banks-like arpeggiations and cascades, and arriving at the jazz-inflected polytonality of French composer, Darius Milhaud.<\/p>\n
Liner notes by Sid Smith:
( Freelance music writer and author of numerous sleeve notes. A regular contributor to Prog magazine, BBC Music and other publications, he is also the author of In The Court of King Crimson and Northstars. You can find out more at sidsmith.blogspot.co.uk )<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my dreams the people speak, of who they are, and what they seek\u201d<\/p>\n
There are points in your life when you have to go with the moment. You don\u02bct always know what the consequences will be of such a choice, or if the path you go down is ultimately the right one. Yet in your heart of hearts you sense it\u02bcs the right thing to do. You go with the moment and take that leap into the unknown.<\/p>\n
Susan Clynes knows all about going with the moment and taking the leap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was 2004 and I was in the final year at high school and I was attending a jazz summer camp in Libramont in Belgium. I had no clue as to what I wanted to do with my life and although I\u02bcd played music from a very young age, when it came to thinking about what to study at university, I was thinking about doing something not at all related to music. I didn\u02bct want to be a concert pianist or a classical composer or that kind of thing. As far as I knew there wasn\u02bct a school for the kind of music I wanted to do. So, I was probably on the verge of signing up to do something like philosophy or psychology not music. When one of the teachers at the camp heard I was thinking of going in a different direction he told me \u02bbYou have to study music: if you do it part-time you\u02bcre not going to grow to your full potential.\u02bc\u201d<\/p>\n
Her first CD, Sugar For A Dream, was released in 2005 (with Ramses Donvil on drums & Sebastien Thome\u0301 on bass) and in other circumstances could have heralded the beginnings of a standard singer-songwriter career path; courting the big labels and looking for the big breakthrough. Instead, Clynes followed the advice she\u02bcd received at the camp and went on to study composition, eventually obtaining her Masters degree at the Ghent Conservatory. The result was the emergence of a far more rounded talent, not only capable of mapping out the emotional geography of the heart and head at a piano in a solo concert, but scoring a viola concerto or guesting with Belgian prog-jazz outfit The Wrong Object.<\/p>\n
That kind of open-mindedness is a crucial aspect of Clynes\u02bc approach and led directly to one of the partnerships featured on this album, another leap into the unknown. \u201cI first saw cellist Simon Lenski with an Antwerp band called DAAU, part of the Rock In Opposition movement playing instrumental chamber rock. I loved what he did and so I called him to ask if he wanted to play with me. With Simon I didn\u02bct have to worry about explaining what the song needed. He immediately felt all that. It\u02bcs almost telepathic when we play.\u201d That\u02bcs certainly a quality that can be discerned in the exuberant interplay Pigeon\u02bcs Intrusion and the rushing tension created during Les Larmes. \u201cI want to make music that bridges the different worlds of songwriting and instrumentals of compositions and improvisation. I want to talk to the heart but not forget there\u02bcs also the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was precisely these qualities which forcibly struck MoonJune Records\u02bc Leonardo Pavkovic after Clynes\u02bc husband Antoine Guenet, keyboard player with Univers Zero, recommended that his wife should sing on The Wrong Object’s After The Exhibition, and in March 2013 suggested to Pavkovic that she should \u02bbjoin the great Moonjune family\u02bc. \u201cAntoine is really a driving force behind me and is always urging me to go forward. They often say behind every great man is a great woman but in this case the opposite is more than true\u201d laughs Clynes.<\/p>\n
It\u02bcs impossible not to notice the surging optimism coursing throughout Clynes\u02bc work in both the instrumental pieces and the songs which make up this album. Though some individuals become cynical, jaded or world weary, those aren\u02bct descriptions that could ever be applied to this artist. \u201cLife is what you choose to make of it \/ will you stop or will you grow?\u201d isn\u02bct just a line from the title track: for Clynes, it\u02bcs akin to a personal manifesto. \u201cI try to put in a positive message but without the songs sounding naive. It\u02bcs about having perspective and how you handle a situation. Not only about how to make the best of it but see it as an opportunity to make yourself be the best person you can be. You don\u02bct always have control of a situation but you do have a choice about how you\u02bcre going to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
The writing of the material on this album coincided with two significant events in Susan\u02bcs life; the birth of her daughter, Ileana and the death of her aunt, Yoka. \u201cWhile I was giving birth, Yoka was being cut open to find brain tumors in her head. She died of a rare cancer which she was born with and didn’t know she had for most of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clynes cites her aunt as someone who also was unafraid of going with the moment and taking that leap into the unknown. \u201cShe was always very passionate about plants, and just a few pages before finishing her doctoral dissertation, she decided to take a world trip and ended up just staying in New Zealand, founding a herb factory.\u201d Having spent eight months working on the writing of the song it\u02bcs easy to understand why Clynes regards Childhood Dreams as one of cornerstones of the album. \u201cShe lived her childhood dreams and taught me to savour each moment as though it might be your last.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u02bcs eight years since Clynes\u02bc last album and in deciding to release live performances, she\u02bcs also putting her instinct for absolute perfection to one side, opting for a more spontaneous approach. \u201cYou can spend years making sure everything is just right, over- thinking everything. Obviously every artist can be a little hyper-critical of what they\u02bcve done and it\u02bcs the same with this album. I notice that there are little things here and there that could be improved. But this is a statement about one moment in time where an artist does as good as he or she can in front of an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u02bcs all about going with the moment and taking that leap. With ‘Life Is…’ we take the leap with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tracks:
1. Life Is (4:21)
2. A Good Man (3:49)
3. Childhood Dreams (6:31)
4. Les Larmes (9:35)
5. Tuesday Rain (5:08)
6. Ileana\u2019s Song (3:37)
7 .When You\u2019re Dead (7:15)
8. Pigeon\u2019s Intrusion (6:00)
9. Le Voyage (3:22)
10. Linear Blindness (4:12)
11. Butterflies (6:38)
SUSAN CLYNES, vocals, piano (all tracks)
SIMON LENSKI cello (tracks 3, 4, 7, 8 & 11)
PIERRE MOTTET bass (tracks 2 & 6)
NICO CHKIFI drums (tracks 2 & 6)<\/p>\n
All compositions by Susan Clynes
Produced by Susan Clynes
Executive production by Leonardo Pavkovic
Please check the promotional video clip: http:\/\/goo.gl\/B9o5dS
Purchasing option on MoonJune’s website: http:\/\/goo.gl\/vpCK0H
BandCamp streaming of the whole album: http:\/\/goo.gl\/fdNuvx
Artist’s website: www.susanclynes.be
\u2022 Promo cds and high quality promo digital downloads of the album available in generous quantity.
\u2022 Susan Clynes is available for interviews.
\u2022 After promotional shows in her native Belgium, Susan Clynes will do a short promotional tour in the USA in Spring 2014 with possible performances in Brazil and around Europe (planning is in process).
\u2022 Similar known artists: singers Tori Amos, Annette Peacock, Essra Mohawk, Fiona Apple, and Laura Nyro; pianist Tony Banks.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source: www.susanclynes.be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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