Tara Clerkin Trio - On The Turning Ground (Black Vinyl)

Tara Clerkin Trio return to World of Echo with On The Turning Ground, a 5-song collection of quixotic, emotional redolence; 26 minutes of probing, thoughtful composition that draws from no one specific source. Their inspirations might be centreless, but the trio still possess a very obvious anchor in the form of their hometown, Bristol: a city of multitudes, heterogenous and vibrant in such a way as to allow it to renew and remake time and again. Tara Clerkin Trio drink from that same well, duly reflecting a rich musical heritage built on fwd-facing electronic subcultures and experimental urges. The two instrumental pieces that bookend the EP display an increasing mastery of compositional space: 'Brigstow' and 'Once Around' both emanate an interstitial quality that's not so much after- as in-between-hours, miniature dub-folk symphonies held together by the kind of tacit understanding that remains the preserve of only the closest of family units. If those two tracks are shaped by a sense of shifting temporality, then the three vocal-led pieces that comprise the record's core feel like a gentle ossifying of aesthetic into their own unique form of avant-pop: undeniable re-directions of that late 90s impulse to bend pop sensibilities into off-centre terrain, to render the familiar new again.