Carhartt WIP Label Feature: Clone Records

This month’s Carhartt WIP Radio show places a spotlight on Rotterdam and the influential record label, store and distributor Clone!

Founded by Serge, Clone launched in 1992 with the EP “Coördinated Sounds & Sequences,” under Serge’s moniker Orx.

What began as a platform for Serge’s own music and his friends’ has grown into a worldwide operation, with Clone’s current roster of artists including Finland’s Aleksi Perälä, Germany’s Roman Flügel, and Legowelt from The Netherlands, as well as Detroit’s Drexciya, The Other People Place, and Der Zyklus. Under Clone Records are also several sub labels including Basement Series, Royal Oak, and Clone Jack for Daze.

In 1995, Serge launched Clone the record store, as well as its distribution arm, which specializes in electronic music, original soundtracks, jazz, funk, and Italo disco from a variety of international labels.

For this episode of Carhartt WIP Radio, Serge offers an insight into Clone with a mix featuring tracks from its most recent catalog, while paying tribute to the birthplace of techno – Detroit.

As ever, the mix is accompanied by an interview, where Serge discuss the need for labels in the modern music industry, the early days of Clone, and his passion for biking. Read the interview via www.carhartt-wip.com/journal/music.

Takuya Matsumoto – EKR’s Galactic Dance 10th Anniversary


One of the classics in the Clone Royal Oak Catalogue… Takuya Matsumoto “EKR’s Galactic Dance” is celebrating its 10-year anniversary! Here we are with a 2024 re-issue of the classic Royal 25 with the lovely “Sun On The Refugees” and “Satellite Orbit Funk” on the flip side which all were played and charted by almost everyone a decade ago. From Floating Points, Leon Vynehall and Giles Petterson to Gerd Janson, Move D etc. Comes with updated artwork and limited white vinyl. Such a beautiful and magical release that continues spreading its love!

Order here @ clone.nl

Although Takuya isn’t one to search the limelights he did an interview and a mix of impeccable taste for Ransom Note a short while ago for the recent releases on Clone jack for Daze and Fina. Read the full interview here.

Alberta Balsam: Hardware and Harmonies

Alberta Balsam is a sonic world builder. A classically trained musician who graduated from the conservatory, her approach is both deeply technical and imaginatively rich. Utilising vintage hardware alongside Ableton wizardry, she recalls early electronic experiments while also tuning into cosmic frequencies that extend beyond time and space.
Alberta Balsam facing right in front of her studio gear
Out on Clone/Dub Recordings this month, 15 Billion Elektrovolt is no exception. Skyrocketing through sizzling acid, dreamy IDM and sawtooth electro, the EP delivers 7 potent tracks, punctuated by cavernous, rolling drums and spacious melodies. From the florid textures of ‘The Mandragora’ to the wonky, warbling bass of ‘Nibiru Desert’, ’15 Billion Elektrovolt’ transmits a star-bound energy that conjures visions of oceanic depths, far-off galaxies and distant horizons.
Catching up to discuss the release, our conversation dips into the analogue equipment that’s a signature of Alberta’s style – and which she uses as part of her mind-bending live showcases – drawing influence from the halcyon 1990s and the intricacies of production.

Hannah Pezzack: Your debut EP Higher Dreams – released by Dekmantel in 2021 – is inspired by the sci-fi novelist Ursula K Le Quin, and weaves a narrative of climate collapse, redemption and hope in the wake of chaos. Does this record have a similar conceptual underpinning?
Alberta Balsam: There’s no overarching narrative, but I often find myself inventing a world when I’m in the studio. I always have a visual accompaniment in my mind, like watching a movie. For instance, in the background of ‘Comic Bionic’, there are lots of laughing people, but the voices are synthesised through vocoders so they are really robotic. The track is about these androids moving through the city, causing chaos, on the way to a rave. Then ‘Galactic Gambol’ is a coming-of-age narrative; it imagines this cute, young character going out into the world and having an adventure. The process is quite cinematic, in a sense. Something that runs through all my music is this sense of optimism; a feeling of hopefulness.

HP: The vocals are beautifully subtle. There are these flashes of ghostly, computerised voices intertwined with the beats.
AB: Actually, I always try to forefront my vocals. But it often makes the track sound too poppy. So I wind up cutting them up and they vanish into the background or even disappear completely. Of course, there’s something rather beautiful about pop singing, especially when it’s got this ethereal, almost soothing quality. It’s interesting, isn’t it? Sometimes you have these go-to or automatic modes of making. Like the way you programme your drums or the chords you choose or the vocal style – these aspects are quite instinctual for me. It just feels right.

HP: Can you walk me through the equipment you used on the EP?
AB: I use a combination of vintage equipment and Ableton. I always mix in Ableton because it’s easier, but I use a lot of hardware at my gigs. Lately, I’ve been playing with my JX-3P, which I had just bought when I was making these tracks. So that instrument is really prevalent on the EP as well as my Moog which I used for samples. I was aiming for the release to have this more impactful, clubby feel, so I was looking for new equipment to work with.
They call the JX-3P the poor man’s Juno. It’s a Roland from the 1980s, but it hasn’t got any faders or anything. It’s such a pain in the ass to program. But you can use Ableton together with midi to control it, which is super cool. It’s a very nerdy approach that I love.
At times, I feel so overwhelmed by all the machines in my studio like I have too many options. For instance, with my Octatrack, I feel I’m not using it to its full potential. I have that with a lot of my gear. But then, I’ll be playing around with something, after a couple of years of owning it, and it will open up to me and I’ll understand every part of it. I think that comes with viewing the instrument as a toy.

HP: Unlike many electronic musicians, you are able to read sheet music and have training in composition. Does that ever come in handy in your production process?
AB: There’s a track on the EP – ‘The Mandragora’ – which has a very theoretical approach. It’s structured around these Plaid style, complicated chord patterns. And it isn’t in 16 or 32 bars, but rather 20. It was a way of working that felt creatively inspiring, although I’m not sure my background in composition always helps me. I want things to be dark, underground and heavy hitting, but making intricate melodies doesn’t seem to go hand-in-hand with that. It can make the music sound too polite or sweet. Then again, that is my training, it’s what I’m drawing on and what influences me. And all theories of music, all approaches, are connected.

Alberta Balsam using grooveboxes pictured from behindHP: To me, your sound is so rooted in the 1990s. I immediately think of Autechre’s ambient techno and, of course, Aphex Twin, where your namesake comes from, but also acts like Luke Vibert’s project ​​Wagon Christ or electro-icons Dopplereffekt. What draws you to this era?
AB: It’s wonderful to refer back to that decade because you play with familiarity while finding space to add experimental elements. It seems as if a certain recognisability opens a door to exploring weirder, more leftfield things. Although what draws me towards the 1990s, particularly the IDM movement, isn’t so much the sound, but rather the fact that artists made such beautiful, deeply touching music with such minimal means. It seemed to be this hugely creative moment in history, and I’m concerned that we’re not as sensitive these days. Or perhaps receptivity is still there, as an undercurrent, but it doesn’t surface as much.

HP: How do you see the release in relation to the other records out on Clone/Dub Recordings?
AB: The label feels like a really good fit, given that Rotterdam is my hometown. I’m a big fan of Exshaw by Ryan James Ford, for instance. I’m pretty proud to be alongside that album.

Alberta Balsam – 15 Billion Elektrovolt – Dub Recordings 050 shipping from clone.nl early June 2023

All photos by Laetitia Bosma.

Trip Recordings

For the past few weeks we’ve been receiving inquiries on a daily basis, asking why Clone Distribution has ended its collaboration with Trip Recordings and Nina Kraviz. Even Time magazine asked whether we’d have an official statement about it, which until now we did not. Clone Records however doesn’t have anything to hide, so with all due respect for the discretion a label/distribution-relation requires, I don’t mind to clarify.

In the past, even after the annexation of the Crimea, Nina Kraviz has put forward several outings which can be taken as pro-Putin. Moreover she has clearly been flirting with CCCP/USSR-sentiments on several occasions, while the USSR was a regime that has stood for the oppression of minorities, has marginalised the LGBTQ+ communities, a regime which murdered millions of people! On Nina’s latest, upcoming compilation-album “All His Decisions” also a number of signs of USSR-flattery are to be found. This is raising questions that, in the light of the current Russian aggression, cannot be ignored.

As many people noticed Nina Kraviz has gone quiet on social media once the war in the Ukraine started. Of course it is her right to keep quiet as she chooses, but as a business partner we want to know what’s going on and what standpoint we should expect her to take on the situation. She however ignored personal requests to talk, moreover having her label manager giving unsatifying answers and poor excuses for not speaking out and not wanting to communicate in general. The communications with her label manager I considered rather manipulative, and her stances were being put forward in vague Putin-esque expressions like “she want’s peace” or “Of course she is against War”, wilfully lacking any meaningful conditions (Does she want Ukraine to surrender to put the war to a stop? Does she want Peace under Putin’s terms?). Other Russian artists, many unlike Nina living in Russia, have spoken out in the first days of the war, and some even now. (Please note that in the first days of the war there was no law which did forbid to speak about “war”). It is a disappointment therefore that she, publicly or privately, hasn’t made known that she doesn’t support the Russian violence, or has shown any sign of empathy with the victims thereof.

By refusing to choose sides, and by not speaking out, Nina enables herself to continue her lifestyle and her life as a performing artist as if nothing is happening, while the looting, the raping, the murdering and the destruction of a country by her countrymen continues. This is in stark contrast to other situations, when she has shown herself to be a opinionated person, always willing to have a conversation. Let me be very clear about the fact that it is her right to do so. She is free to stay silent, and of course she is allowed to keep her political views to herself and to live her life as she wishes. She may well have her personal reasons to justify that behavior, but as a business partner Clone Records is equally free to not conveniently accept those reasons.

While she is still touring the world and enjoying all the benefits of the freedom in the Western world, she chooses not to live under Putin’s oppression, yet she is using Putin’s law as an excuse not to speak out and remain silent. Therefore the way Nina Kraviz chooses to stay silent can be considered to be out of opportunism, hypocrisy and a abuse of freedom, thereby going against the values on which house and techno music and their respective cultures are built. The cultures and communities from which Nina did build her career. We see this silence as a sign of double standards and of disinterest, and we consider it a symptom of a toxic positivity and a toxic ignorance in the techno scene that Clone Record chooses not to represent. The house and techno scene are supposed to stand up for minorities, for the less privileged and the oppressed and for freedom of expression. It is built by minorities and oppressed people, and we should not allow ourselves to forget just that.

Nina Kraviz is too big to fail. There are enough people who dont know or who don’t care. Or because they are priviliged enough to say “Its about the music” or who just see the money and status which comes with her fame. I’m not worried about her career, I’m worried about the toxic behaviour which rottens the scene and the culture which gave us the music which we celebrate everyday, I worry about the values of the house and techno culture.
While many festivals and clubs conveniently accept her right to remain silent, we in our opinion have all the reasons to end the collaboration, even if she would distance herself from past USSR flattery in a near future and even if she would take distance from her Pro-Putin outings at some point. We won’t be waiting for a sign of empathy with the victims of Russia’s aggression while the murdering and raping continues. We cannot wait and hope for a statement, a personal message or actions showing that she stands for the same morals in which the house and techno scenes are rooted, while we already have several signs that she doesn’t. Simply put, this is not the moral behavior and energy we want to represent or be associated with.

I hope this sufficiently clarifies and explains my personal stance as well as the standpoint and actions taken by Clone Records/Clone Distribution. Everyone should make their own decisions, I am not calling out to cancel anybody. Make your own decisions on what kind of energy you allow in your life!

Stay safe!!

Serge

We are hiring: sales & promotions operative – 24-32 hours

To reinforce our Clone.nl and Clone Records staff we are looking for motivated and enthousiastic new colleagues. The position we’re offering comprises the responsibility for many of our online, and more specifically, social media-based promotion and sales efforts. This position thereby offers plenty of inspiring creative, aesthetic and commercial challenges.

We are looking for:

– Aesthetic and commercial attitude towards online- and social promotion

– Experience with, and knowledge of social-media platforms and their developments

– Basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator and basic video-editing skills

– Copywriting skills and a proficient level of English language

– Love for (independently made) electronic music, and quality music in general, is required

– In-depth knowledge of the Independent music label-landscape is preferred

– Education (MBO+) and experience in the fields of marketing, sales, culture and the arts is a bonus!

We are offering:

– Solid position in an informal, safe and inspiring environment

– Plenty of opportunities to learn and develop in an internationally oriented and renowned musical environment

– Salary depending on age, experience and education

If your are interested in this position, kindly send your application to [email protected] before the 15th of april!

Job alert: production & planning associate – 24-32 hours

To reinforce our Clone Records label staff we are looking for a motivated and enthousiastic new colleague. This position offer the responsibility for organising and planning productions for both our own labels as well as for our production & distribution partners. This position thereby offers plenty of inspiring creative, aesthetic and commercial challenges.

We are looking for:

– A responsible and conscientiously working organiser

– Excellent communication skills

– Proficient level of English language

– Love for (independently made) electronic music, and quality music in general, is required

– In-depth knowledge of the Independent music label-landscape is preferred

– Education (MBO+) and experience in the fields of marketing, sales, culture and the arts is a bonus!

We are offering:

– Solid position in an informal, safe and inspiring environment

– Plenty of opportunities to learn and develop in an internationally oriented and renowned musical environment

– Salary depending on age, experience and education

If your are interested in this position, kindly send your application to [email protected] before the 15th of april!

Clone 2021 Staff Favorites

Click here for the Clone.nl chart with audio previews of all favorites on one page

Nico: Japanese Telecom – Japanese Telecom EP
It’s hard to believe this record was produced over 20 years ago since many of the tracks still sound like the future till this day. A re-release of this iconic work by Gerald Donald was long overdue and I’m glad it finally happened this year, although I must say there are a lot of great releases that deserve to be mentioned when I look back at (roughly) the last 12 months. The second release on Nduja by Mammo, Autechre’s SIGN / PLUS albums and Other Lands’ Sounds For Isolated Souls come to mind. However, Japanese Telecom turned out to be my pick because of its relevance, not only to me personally but to electro(nic) music in general for over 2 decades.

Charmaine: Nala Sinephro – Space 1.8
Nala Sinephro’s debut on Warp has been a great soundscape for me to recalibrate and dream away to. A fusion of soothing jazz, ambient and beats. All ‘’Spaces’’ flow together beautifully, making it a cohesive project that is best enjoyed when listened to from front to back.

Jelmer: ø (Phase) – Before This
Crystal clear, driving, and cinematic double 12” by Ashley Burchett. I’ve found myself returning to this album often for dancefloor inspiration or simply to bang out in a (semi)club/radio setting. Also: picking one favourite of the year is nearly impossible, so here are a few honourable mentions (limited to only new music): Michel Banabila on Knekelhuis, Deluka on Nosignal, ViL on Self Reflektion, Lost Trax on Delsin, Aleksi Perala on Repetitive Rhythm Research, DJ Stingray 313 on Micron, and Mario Batkovic on Invada.

Pim: Nuron & Fugue – Likemind 06
Long overdue re-issue of the larger part of Nuron’s (and Fugue’s) output in the 90’s. On the original Likemind label no less! Crisp, emotional, futuristic and shrouded in mystery. Just how I like it. Likemind 01 prompted my obsession with this label en techno of a similar ilk, and was a starting point of a musical journey. Re-mastered on two discs on black vinyl, this is a must own. On a side note: for one of the Stasis tracks released on Likemind 01, check out this release on Fencepiece

Wouter: CV Vision – Tropical
Every release on South of North was big this year, but the debut of this man, who has released four (!) more albums since, turned out to be my fav. Back Lava is stupid good!

Hans: Mndsgn – Rare Pleasure
Like I mentioned while proclaiming this my pick of the week some months ago: from my perspective Ringgo Ancheta is one of the most talented producers alive and kicking at the moment. I’ll spare you any further words, just listen to the music!

Sil: Deadline Paranoia 3/3 Ongehoord 003
The final part in the Deadline Paranoia trilogy. A most worthy series of one of a kind strange yet great dub originally issued on an obscure cassette made available again by Amsterdam based label ongehoord.

Just: Various Artists – Heisei No Oto – Japanese Left-Field Pop From the CD Age
I heard the track “Miko” a few weeks back in the store during Yuto Takei’s Friday store stream. A refreshing track after a good day.

Joep: Vladimir Ivkovic & Ivan Smagghe – IDMEMO – A future Of Nostalgia – Vol. 2
This album is a very special compilation full of amazing treasures from the 90’s IDM Electronica era. Some of the tracks have never appeared on vinyl before and are compiled by Vladimir Ivkovic & Ivan Smagghe on Above Board Projects.

All the tracks are beautiful but for me personally, one stands out; Psil Cosyin by the Black Dog, originally released on the album “Spanners” on Warp in the mid 90’s. Psil Cosyin is an excellent trip full of surprises and directions you wouldn’t expect. The track really sounds like one long journey for me where you dive into the world of the producers’ mind.

The first time I heard this piece of art was in the shop, first month I worked there! After this moment I was hooked to find more Black Dog Productions and other great albums from that period of time. I discovered multiple gems such as old Warps from the Artificial Intelligence Series, and other artists like B12, Autechre and Replicant!
Since this moment I’m addicted to the world of Warp and Black Dog Productions…

Marlon: LeRon Carson – Under The Condition
This album caught my attention and came out in November. Genuine jacking Chicago house that sounds if it’s made in a dusty basement. Recorded in the ’80s but still timeless.

Chris: Mr. Fingers – Vault Sessions 1
With the ‘Vault Sessions 1’ Larry Heard treats us to a small window into his ‘vault’ of unreleased outtakes from album projects and singles spanning his whole 35+ year career. With beauties like these you have to wonder what more gems he has in stock…

Lennert: Modern Analysis – Proto Rhythm
This is my current favourite to go with. It’s dark, moody yet vibrant and joyful house music, as it should be!

Mei: Eversines – Companionship
https://clone.nl/item63866.html
This release has been one of my favorites since the first time I heard it. The sound is Beautiful and unique. A1- Companionship is my favorite track. It makes me want to dance!

Paul: Antenna – Timbales
Driven by nostalgia, this year I’ve mostly been buying second hand records, collecting tracks from all these mixtapes I was consuming as a kid. But you could just as well buy Antenna’s latest instead. Timbales is like a repressive techno therapy session, bringing back memories of a long gone future.

Nic: Cucina Povera – Seesteyttää – OFFEN019

Nina: Xingu Hill – Strange Echoes 95 – 99
Xingu Hill (John Sellekaers) has been one of my favorite producers for years. He released most music under his Xingu alias in the 90s; this album contains remastered tracks from that period. It’s another dreamlike record put together by the traumgarten crew, which fits well with their concept and past output.
Xingu Hill has got many more amazing tracks, def recommended to check them out!

Clone Store Selection December 1996

Couple weeks ago an old buddy emailed me… “Serge… I digitalized some old mixes you did back in the days… you interested in the files? They’re pretty cool! One has written ‘Clone Store selection December 1996’ on it”. Dude of course!!

Recorded in the very first Clone store location, the old Urban Unit skatestore garage… 23 years ago. While my neightbours of Midtown records were selling shit and shit loads of gabber (which was at its peak and total mainstream in 1996), I was selling records to the freaks and recording mixes like this in the quiet hours in the shop.

The only Pioneer equipment used was the headphone, the classic SE450… mixed on a crappy Realistic mixer…..the tape had some glitches as it’s probably a copy, or a copy of a copy, as the reach of such a mix was probably about 10 friends who all copied from each other… Funny when you realize how easy is it to reach 1000’s via Soundcloud and Youtube these days, while back then you only made these mix tapes for a couple buddies… :-)

I can use some help with track id’s as I barely remember 4 of them… time screws up your memory 😂
(Goosebump alert at 55.30 minutes!!)

La Mer

For this release we’re heading back to Claude Debussy with his classic recording “La Mer” conducted by Jun Märkl and performed by Orchestre National De Lyon!

In 1903, Claude Debussy, one of the greatest innovators of Western music, went through a tumultuous period in which he lost some of his best friends. In order to escape the chaos at home, the impressionist composer and his mistress Emma made a trip along the coast of France. This gave him the necessary inspiration to complete La mer, an ode to the turbulent sea, within two years.
La mer (1905), which carries the subtitle ‘three symphonic sketches for orchestra’, has an exceptionally visual character, and evokes associations with the shine of the midday sun on the sea surface, the breaking of the waves, the splashing of foam and the sparkling of water droplets. It is known that Debussy was an ardent lover of impressionist painting and Japanese prints, and drew inspiration from the colorful seascapes of William Turner and Claude Monet when composing La mer. In addition, he chose a Hokusai print to adorn the front cover of the original edition of La mer, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, on which two boats are ruthlessly swallowed by a wall of seawater.

La mer is a musical painting that makes the different faces of the sea audible, the lovely and magical, but also the restless and grim. The opening sounds of the first part, De l’aube à midi sur la mer (‘From Dawn Till Noon on the Sea’), are energetic and uplifting, but have a somewhat threatening undertone, so that the listener immediately understands he is confronted with a majestic, unpredictable natural phenomenon. The waves alternately swell and weaken, while in the meantime, the sun gradually moves towards its highest point in the sky, casting its burning, dazzling rays over the turbulent surface of the water.

In the second part, Jeux de vagues (‘Play of the Waves’), the sea shows itself at its friendliest. It is the sea as we desire it when we go on a beach holiday, a sea that is pleasantly rippling and babbling, and inviting us to meditatively stare at it. Debussy composed La mer for a relatively large symphony orchestra. He did not do so in order to achieve a high dynamic range, but rather to have a comprehensive palette of orchestral timbres at his disposal. Thus, he could ‘paint’ all individual waves, swirls, gusts of wind, breezes and drip effects through an appropriate musical instrument.

The third part, Dialogue du vent et de la mer (‘Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea’), has a dialogical structure in which each musical image sounds in duplicate, as if the wind and the sea were entangled in a mirroring dance. The water surface is again tumultuous, and the listener could get the impression that the sea of ​​Debussy is subject to mood swings. Therefore, it is not surprising that La mer is often regarded as a metaphor for life as a whole, which is just as capricious as the sea, and subject to the same dynamics of ebb and flow.

Myrthe Meester

Pre-order vinyl: https://clone.nl/item58713.html
Artwork by Lost Communication

Frei Aber Froh!

We’re proud to announce our 2nd release! A classic recording of one of Johannes Brahms greatest works, Symphony No.3 conducted by World Famous conductor Jaap van Zweden on vinyl for the very first time!

The Conquest of Freedom

Frei aber einsam, this became the life motto of violinist Joseph Joachim after he divorced his wife. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote a melancholic violin sonata for his friend Joachim, in which the notes F-A-E (Frei Aber Einsam) were central. In his Third Symphony, however, the great German composer decided to reflect his own life motto, Frei aber froh, which he did through the sequence of the notes F-A flat-F. This makes the Third Symphony one of the few instrumental compositions to which Brahms gave an extra-musical meaning. “Free but happy” expresses his independent attitude to life: Brahms never got married, but devoted his entire life to composing music, studying the music of his classical predecessors and to his beloved solitary walks in nature.

Brahms went down in history as a neoclassicist, who – contrary to his revolutionary, theatrical contemporaries Liszt and Wagner – wanted to stand up for classical form principles and abstract, “absolute” music. Still, he was unmistakably a Romantic and an original composer. Since Brahms grew up in a time when great composers from the past, such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, were rediscovered and honored, he had to find a way to relate to that glorious past. Unlike Wagner and Liszt, who wanted to take a radically new course, Brahms developed a personal musical language that built on the principles of his precious predecessors. Sometimes, however, he experienced this “ancestor worship” as a heavy burden. “I shall never compose a symphony!” he claimed in 1870. “You have no idea how someone like me feels when he hears such a giant marching behind him all the time.” Brahms was referring to Beethoven, his greatest idol. By that time, however, he had already started writing his First Symphony, which he did not finish until 1876, at the age of 43. Soon after that a Second (1877), Third (1883) and Fourth Symphony (1885) followed, which became a success among the general public and earned him the honorary title “third B” in the list of the big B’s, after Bach and Beethoven.

Brahms’s Third symphony opens with the aforementioned Frei aber froh-motif in F minor. This is remarkable, since the symphony itself is written in F major. An innovative aspect of the Third Symphony is precisely this continuous, restless conflict between major and minor, which adds an intoxicating tension to the work. Immediately after the F-A-F-motif, Brahms introduces a second melody, which has a heroic, majestic character, and is interspersed with an airy, lyrical motif in which the clarinet plays the leading role, to be heard for the first time in the second minute. It takes a great effort to conquer freedom, the music seems to suggest, but that effort is richly rewarded by light and happy moments.

The second part in C major has a rural atmosphere, and Brahms’s well-beloved friend Clara Schumann called it “a pure idyll; I can see the worshippers kneeling about the little forest shrine, I hear the babbling brook and the buzz of insects…” Here too, the clarinet, one of Brahms’s favorite instruments, plays a central role. The third movement in C minor opens with one of Brahms’s best known and most poetical melodies, evoking associations with the darkness of the night and the longing for a loved one. The mysterious opening motif of the fourth movement, in the ancient Phrygian mode, is interspersed with a fierce, heroic melody that makes it understandable why Hans Richter, the conductor of the symphony’s premiere, spoke of “Brahms’s Eroica”. Only in the final measures do these wildly succeeding motives come to reconciliation, when Brahms concludes his hopeful freedom symphony with the slowly dying away of the Frei aber froh-motif.

Text by Myrthe Meester

Pre-order vinyl: https://clone.nl/item57653.html