Experimental cellist Clarice Jensen finds inspiration in Bach, and some electronics : NPR

You by no means know fairly what you are going to get with a Clarice Jensen album. The stressed musician and composer, not content material to be only a regulation cellist, thrives on disguising her instrument, normally with an arsenal of electronics. From album to album it could roar like a jet engine, imitate a pipe organ or fester fantastically in a fuzzed out wall of atmosphere. After which generally, the cello is not there in any respect.

Jensen’s new album, In vacation clothes, out of the good darkness, is yet one more fascinating seek for sound, and it could be her greatest but. The shock this time is that she lets her acoustic cello do the heavy lifting, and units a lot of the gear apart.

Her inspiration, she says, comes from the solo Cello Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach: “Having discovered methods to increase the sound and voices of my instrument by means of electronics, I discovered it becoming to return to Bach’s works as a information, or a minimum of as a strategy to contact again in with the custom of the instrument.”

The suites, written round 1720, are each a bible and a Mount Everest for any cellist, offering a broad vary of textures, voices and feelings — sufficient for a lifetime of research and amazement. If you realize Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1, you may hear that flowing, arpeggiated line echo within the opening measures of Jensen’s album, within the title monitor. Jensen loops the theme round itself then soars above, layering in an extended and craving line that can make you soften. She’s not likely borrowing from Bach; as a substitute she’s creating her personal new language stimulated by his traditional literature.

Jensen embraces the acoustic heat of her cello on the brand new album as by no means earlier than, even when she’s doctoring it with looping pedals, delays and octave shifters. Within the piece 2,1 she applies a tangy digital pulse, which acts as a foundational drone and presents a stark juxtaposition to the creamy cello layers. It is also a nod to Bach in a geeky type of means, because it’s constructed like a sarabande, a gradual dance present in his cello suites.

In vacation clothes is an homage to Bach, certainly. Nevertheless it’s additionally an ambient oasis — an area to decelerate, pay attention carefully and maybe even mirror. So I used to be shocked to be taught that Jensen performed music from the album on tour with the emo band My Chemical Romance. The piece From a to b, with its undulating counterpoint and chilled out vibe, was a success on the exhibits when Jensen, alone on stage, performed it as an interlude. As one reddit commenter famous, “It was such a wonderful strategy to make everybody sit with their emotions.” Rating one level for the ambient Bach-inspired cellist.

Jensen additionally scores factors by creating one thing massive and complicated out of the smallest musical gestures. Within the album’s nearer, Unity, she begins with easy bow strokes, as if she’s tuning up her cello. However then she builds, brick by brick, to disclose a kaleidoscopic, surging cathedral of sound.

With this album, Jensen reminds us how previous and current can mix in potent, emotionally charged methods — how Bach’s old style traditions and our new age of electronics could make arresting bedfellows.