I like experimental folk who make Experimental Folk.
Scottish-born Denmark-based Clarissa Connelly’s World of Work, released on Warp Records 12 April 2024, fits that bill while stretching the experimental part so far out it touches the 12th Century. Connelly sites a wide range of influences including writer, composer, philosopher, and mystic Hildegard von Bingen, Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila, and French philosopher and author Georges Bataille. I did say wide. To my mind Bataille remains a fascinating figure and his thoughts On Nietzsche are among my favorites while his 1928 novella “Histoire de l’œil” (Story of the Eye) is still shocking (for adults only) and it inspired a wide range of people including Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Björk, and Jean-Luc Godard. The Story of the Eye even had a cameo in Richard Linklater’s film Before Sunrise. I did say wide.
Getting back to World of Work, the entire album should be listened through as it’s constructed as such, not as a collection of songs. A journey. Try out “Wee Rosebud” on the hifi and you should, within moments, be lost in the mist of mysterious soaring beauty. If you’re not you may need a new hifi.