Hugely respected for his innovative approach to the fretless bass and his groundbreaking work with Japan/Rain Tree Crow, Kate Bush, David Torn and others. Mick Karn died on the 4th of January, 2011.
Initiated by Peter Murphy, Karn’s final work during his lifetime saw the unexpected resurrection of the duo’s cult mid-1980s project, Dali’s Car.
Conceived during the final months of Karn’s life, the resulting 5 track EP recalls the exotic Eastern-tinged Art Pop sensibility of Dali’s Car’s fondly remembered 1984 album, The Waking Hour, while also possessing an elegiac quality which fittingly evokes the sad circumstances under which the material was written and recorded.
Featuring significant contributions from friends and regular musical collaborators Steve Jansen, Jakko M Jakszyk and Theo Travis, InGladAloneness begins with the life-affirming King Cloud and Sound Cloud. Driven by Karn’s dense and compelling bass and bassoon patterns and Murphy’s singular voice, the songs contain lyrics that emotionally echo Murphy’s response to Karn’s condition and suggest musical directions the project might have pursued had it continued as a creative concern. Along with the inventively multi-layered re-imagining of Artemis (from The Waking Hour), these pieces operate as the rhythmically propelled spiritual storm before the glacial calm of the two closing numbers.
The Arvo Part meets Turkish chant lament of Subhanallah and – prefaced by a mournful Karn instrumental – the deeply personal reading of Jaques Brel’s classic If You Go Away (a favourite song of Karn’s), provide a moving conclusion to a poignant final statement.
Both Karn and Dali’s Car distinctively combined the sophisticated and the primitive to produce a challenging music with an instinctive and heartfelt emotional core. InGladAloneness is a glorious testament to a unique vision tragically cut short by illness.
Tracklist
1 | King Cloud | 5:01 |
2 | Sound Cloud | 4:25 |
3 | Artemis Rise | 4:52 |
4 | Subhanallah | 2:16 |
5 | If You Go Away | 2:51 |