Irish born, but splitting her time between Belfast, Dublin and Paris, Clara Tracey has released her debut album ‘Black Forest’
Available here – https://irishmusicmarket.
Clara Tracey’s debut album “Black Forest” is an opening into her magic realist world where women reign, stained glass masterpieces come to life and fantasies are playfully erotic.
Infused with a sense of sexual liberation that can be attributed to the decade she spent living in Paris in the posthumous company of Colette, Anais Nin and Angela Carter, Clara deliberately provokes her nineties Catholic upbringing in Northern Ireland and the sense of repression that for some is still palpable there.
Clara first started writing songs as an escape from the monotony of her first job out of college in a Paris law firm. Her perfectionist streak meant that she continued to write songs while eschewing the studio for years until on the verge of an exasperated breakdown she finally recruited Daniel Fox (Gilla Band) in March 2020 (inspired by his Scott Walker-esque productions with Paddy Hanna). Recording between lockdowns meant there was no access to high fidelity piano takes so perhaps serendipitously organs and synths took over in a 70s/90s Gainsbourg meets Stereolab production style.
“And if life were a painting”
The visual world of the album is made up via direct references to art deco stain glass window painter (Harry Clarke), Georgia O’Keefe’s suggestive florals (Strange Flowers) and Jane Birkin’s androgynous sixties style. When Salvatore of Lucan offered to paint the album cover, her Harry Clarke lyric and “painted lady” aspirations came true in three sittings.
Clara Tracey brings to her music “a libertarian, feminist and theatrical slant” (The Irish Times). Originally from Co. Fermanagh, Clara fell in love with the piano at a young age, however her music career took a detour while she studied Law and French in Belfast. It was only after moving to France and experiencing life in a Parisian law firm that she discovered a more artistic lifestyle and started performing in jazz cafes around Paris.
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