Scott Clark’s This Darkness

Scott Clark
THIS DARKNESS
live streamed album release concert
featuring an opening set by bassist Adam Hopkins
Fri Jan 15 @ 7pm
$10
purchase virtual tickets at https://tix.firehousetheatre.org/e/scott-clark-this-darkness/tickets

“This Darkness” is the debut solo drum set album by Richmond-based musician Scott Clark.
It’s inspired by Ranier Maria Rilke’s poem “Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower.” One of Clark’s friends gave him a copy of the poem written on a small piece of paper, and he read the poem a few times a day in the weeks leading up to the recording session. As Clark was setting up in the recording studio in May 2019, he placed the small piece of paper with the handwritten poem on the music stand in front of him, and in that moment he decided that the recording session would begin with Rilke’s poem in mind.
Using a poem as his score was something that Clark had explored in the past, but he hadn’t intended to use this approach on his first solo album. In Clark’s previous recordings – “Bury My Heart” and “ToNow” (both released on Clean Feed Records) — he composed music to convey moments in Native history. “This Darkness” seems like a natural progression in Clark’s development as a composer.
“This Darkness” was performed in a single take, recorded in the same order that it’s heard on the album. After a short break, Clark returned to the studio to document some other ideas he had planned for the day-long session but it was clear to both Clark and the engineer — Richmond’s own Lance Koehler — that the record was complete.
“This Darkness” is available at outofyourheadrecords.bandcamp.com/album/this-darkness