Megan Alice Clune – If You Do (Room40)

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Australian artist Megan Alice Clune creates these amazing, strange pieces of electronic music anchored by the manipulated human voice. It truly sounds like nothing else around. It’s incredibly idiosyncratic in terms of structure, timbre and approach. In a way it could only make sense to her, yet its such a gorgeous seductive sound that you want to be swept up within her world.

Somehow it reminds me of ancient Gaelic musik or perhaps magik, somehow representing some of the folkloric ancient English tribes, or perhaps my impression of what that should be. To me, with its steady heartbeats, strange ethereal, otherworldly vocals I’m taken to the sounds of The Wicker Man or A Field In England, or perhaps Alice Coltrane’s Ashram music if it was recorded by a robot. It feels like this music is otherworldly and ritualistic – this music has power.

Clune is Sydney based a musician, composer, artist and lecturer, She is the founding member of the Alaska Orchestra who have performed music from everyone from Brian Eno to Cluster to Midori Takada.

If You Do Though is something quite singular, it’s a peculiar form of trance, somehow fragile and gentle, yet moving in waves and emotionally overpowering. It seems to focus on all the things that music usually doesn’t, and highlights all that usually isn’t. Its single minded contrariness is quite fascinating, yet to be honest you get the sense that it doesn’t even notice, because its so intent on pursuing Clunes own internal singular vision.

Its rare that music comes along that you don’t quite understand what it is, where it comes from or what it intends to be. And when this work is not just fascinating but also quite beautiful then you’re entering a whole new realm. If You Do manages to combine a highly personal vision with a really quite experimental approach resulting in this strange intoxicating ritualistic sound that will have you questioning what music can be.

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Bob is the features editor of Cyclic Defrost. He is also evil. You should not trust the opinions of evil people.

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