Australian experimental musician Tarquin Manek will release his solo LP Tarquin Magnet on Blackest Ever Black this coming November. Manek runs in BEB circles playing in the band Tarcar with Carla dal Forno, and F ingers with dal Forno and Samuel Karmel. In addition, the musician’s track “Not Missing You” appeared on the BEB label compilation I Can’t Give You The Life You Want, and earlier this year he released The Duo LP under his LST moniker via Another Dark Age. BEB reports that Tarquin Magnet is an improvisational work that incorporates “domestic field recordings”, and that it’s raw materials, things like clarinet, violin, keyboard, dictaphone, and mobile phone, were then meticulously assembled during long hours of editing.
Today, we listen to the extraordinary track “Sassafras Gesundheit“. Combining clarinet, violin, and what sounds like an arpeggiating key-line, this is a bracing and free composition that bills itself as a love song of sorts. If we are to believe the poetic statement found on the label’s page for this release, presumably written by Manek himself, we learn that the musician once fell in love with a scientist–who also happened to be a “brilliant” violin player. Though the two were together for nine years, he only heard her play once. He goes on to explain that his best instrument is the clarinet, but adds, “Look, I’m not claiming anything as ridiculous as me channeling her that day, but I had never before played violin…”. Indeed, Manek’s expressionistic violin figures prominently in this track, and while it’s heated exchanges with the clarinet might be “star-crossed”, like any good relationship, there’s an open and charged dialogue between the instruments on “Sassafras Gesundheit”. And sometimes, in the difficult business of relating, that’s all you can ask for!
