Drawing inspiration from across the spectrum of folk and country music, California-born and Portland, OR-based songwriter Lindsay Clark shows the power of quiet detail and layered vocals. Latest album Carpe Noctem, out next month on Audiosport Records, invites the likes of William Tyler, Alela Diane, Sage Fisher, Alexis Mahler and Andy Rayborn to bring the full intricacy of Clark’s work to life, providing a suitably evocative backdrop for her contemplative and poetic writing.
With its changeable harmonies and encompassing warmth, single ‘Evening Star’ is the perfect introduction. “I wrote ‘Evening Star’ one winter when I was visiting my hometown in the mountains of Northern California, and the river there,” Clark explains. “I was struggling with some patterns in my life that kept ending in loss, but I was also in a time where I felt a sense of deep internal change.” But the larger patterns of the environment brought a sense of comfort. Be it the flow of the water or diurnal cycle of day and night, the rhythms of nature stand in opposition to the personal trends of loss. Patterns not as some closed system but the drivers of slow change.
The song recreates nature’s rhythms, both through Clark’s layered vocals and extra guitar/bass from William Tyler. “I wanted to capture the darkness of night and the depth that water has,” Clark continues, “and [Tyler’s] guitar and bass parts added so much texture to the song.” The result is a track capable of evoking the a variety of movements simultaneously. The slow rise of the moon in the sky, the quick, quiet flow of water over stones, the stop-start pull of a life unfolding with no certainty beyond change.
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The track also comes complete with a video directed, shot and edited by Edward Pack Davee:
Carpe Noctem is out on the 24th June via Audiosport Records and you can pre-order it now from the Lindsay Clarke Bandcamp page.
