In the Round: Tara Clerkin Trio

Tara Clerkin Trio at ICA London

TARA CLERKIN TRIO formed in Bristol (where none of them are from yet all of whom are deeply engrained) in 2020. Despite the singular authority implied by its name, they consist of the titular Tara Clerkin, her partner Sunny Joe Paradisos, and Sunny’s brother, Patrick Benjamin. With two extraordinary mini-albums – In Spring (2021) and On The Turning Ground (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, this upcoming Somewhere Good LP is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work.

In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic (*an overused adjective for which here there is regrettably no sufficient alternative) approaches, Clerkin & Co. color in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes - never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification - allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before. There are elements of avant-pop, modern classical, kraut-folk, audio verité, and nods to trip hop, but Tara Clerkin Trio have fun transcending easy categorisation.