Onliness Josienne Clarke

• 1The Tangled Tree04:21
• 2Only Me Only02:23
• 3It Would Not Be A Rose03:15
• 4Ghost Light04:14
• 5Silverline03:09
• 6Bells Ring02:27
• 7Something Familiar02:25
• 8The Birds03:24
• 9Homemade Heartache04:01
• 10Chicago03:42
• 11Things I Didn't Need03:50
• 12Bathed In Light03:14
• 13Anyone But Me03:01
• 14I Never Learned French01:40
• 15Done03:50
• 16Workhorse03:22
• 17Words Were Never The Answer01:44
• Total Runtime54:02

Info for Onliness

Today, indie-folk artist Josienne Clarke has announced her new album Onliness (songs of solitude & singularity) will be released on April 14th, 2023. On her new album, Clarke revisits songs from her back catalogue, a combination of fan favourites as well as hidden gems that have, until now, never had the spotlight she felt they deserved. The first single, out today, is a reworked and re-recorded version of one of her earliest compositions, ‘The Tangled Tree’.

Following the release of her 2021 album – A Small Unknowable Thing – Josienne began thinking about the idea of reclamation. Cutting her teeth in an industry that so often works against the artist it's supposed to support – and with a lingering idea in the wake of Taylor Swift’s ‘Taylor’s Version’ project – Josienne began revisiting the songs in her back catalogue that felt buried somehow, for myriad reasons. She took some of those songs and started playing around with them, viewing them from the place she was now, in charge of every little detail, free to do what she truly wanted with them.

“Artists are constantly required to create new content, this content is consumed in the short term and forgotten about. When a big label owns the masters of your songs forever you earn little to nothing..." (Josienne Clarke)

Josienne Clarke, vocals, guitars, piano (The Birds), saxophone
Matt Robinson, keyboards, harmonium, piano
Dave Hamblett, drums
Alec Bowman Clarke, bass
Mary Ann Kennedy, harp

Josienne Clarke
When Josienne signed to the illustrious independent music champions Rough Trade Records, its founder Geoff Travis told The Guardian that she writes,“songs that rearrange your internal emotional landscape… reinventing the popular song structure.” With a rare gift for poetic melancholy, Josienne’s songs have also been described as “extraordinary” (Mojo), “gently exquisite” (The Observer) and “full of depth” (The Telegraph). While the world music bible Songlines said, “Clarke’s dark,complex imagery in the lyrics pushes the songs into rich metaphorical territory, one of the heart and of self-enquiry.” American Songwriter magazine named Josienne one of the best songwriters of 2016.

Having been awed by a live performance at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, 6 Music DJ Cerys Matthews arranged for Josienne to act and sing in The National Theatre’s revival of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good. In addition to performing on the Olivier stage each night – in a role specially created for her – Josienne contributed two of her own songs to the play. In their review of the acclaimed production, The Financial Times said, “Josienne Clarke sings like a haunted angel.”It marked the start of a continued relationship with the National Theatre, which has included composing songs for a new adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen, with acclaimed young playwright Zoe Cooper.

With an elegant, nuanced and emotionally affecting singing style (Cerys Matthews described her as having a voice that can “trickle back over centuries”) Josienne has frequently been compared to the great Sandy Denny, but present too are elements of Nina Simone and Gillian Welch; all three are important influences on her work.

Expanding beyond the folk music for which she was first known, Josienne has partnered with rising star jazz pianist Kit Downes to release the Such A Sky EP. And her friendship with London-based Scottish singer songwriter Samantha Whates has bloomed into new group Pica Pica, whose debut album will be released by Rough Trade. fRoots magazine has already described the band’s sound as “originally exciting”.

In the last two years, Josienne has supported the great Richard Thompson on a dream-come-true tour of the UK and opened for the legendary Robert Plant across Europe. The summer of 2018 saw her perform with guitarist Ben Walker at some of the UK’s best-loved festivals, including Latitude, Larmer Tree and End Of The Road. She even found herself in demand as a writer and broadcaster, contributing to Standard Issue magazine and appearing on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb to discuss her pet subject melancholy, alongside poet Simon Armitage.

With several new records and theatrical productions to look forward to in 2019, Josienne Clarke remains one of the most impressive, accomplished and downright heart-breaking singers, lyricists and composers we’ve got.

This album contains no booklet.