Thomas Lea Clarke is an electronic musician and sound artist living in Berlin whose practice approaches sound through installation, live performance and composition.
From the perspective of working with materiality, his works explore topics such as space, sonic experience, histories and technology.
He is interested in how sound is experienced, the significance that it carries and how it can be composed and presented to explore these topics.
Four locked grooves play continuously, drifting and overlapping, falling in and out of phase and synchronicity, creating complex polyrhythms as well as moments of tension and harmony whilst gradually degrading. The evolving patterns challenge preconceived notions of structure and sequencing, inviting the listener to question the dichotomy between predictability and randomness.
The opening night of the exhibition featured a live performance by Clarke, using the material of the installation to layer and blend the various loops to create an improvisational composition. Clarke also held a workshop on the secong day of the exhibition where participants learnt how to create their own locked grooves using vinyl records and a razor blade.
- Sound Installation + Performance + Workshop
- Multichannel sound for locked groove vinyl records
- SoundsAbout Gallery, Berlin
- 09-11.02.24
A sound art performance that explores the topics of memory, technology, obsolescence and forgotten histories. Using radio cassette players and reel to reel tape machines from the DDR era of East Germany that the artist procured through the popular German second-hand trading website “Ebay Kleinanzeigen”, Clarke mixes excerpts of interviews that he conducted with the original owners of the various machines, with their own 1980s home-made radio cassette recordings, and field recordings made by the artist in various locations around Berlin.
- Sound Performance + Research Project
- Reel to reel tape machines, vintage radios + DJ mixer
- Casino Forum D’art Contemporain, Luxembourg
- 27.07.2023
A multichannel loudspeaker installation that evokes the contemplation of language, its sonic properties, translation and the dynamics imposed by the omnipotence of technology companies. One phrase is translated consecutively, moving around in a field/chamber following the progression of the children’s game ‘Telephone’. The sounds of various languages enter conflicts, surrender, merge, and deconstruct through the act of translation.
- Multichannel Sound Installation
- 12 Loudspeakers
- UDK, Berlin
- In Collaboration with Hoiyan Guo, Damian Noguera & Loris Foti
- 14.11.23
Acid Drones is a new recordng and live project by Thomas Lea Clarke. Each Acid Drone is built around a spectral drone generating VST that is reacting to the filter modulation of a 303 clone.
- Album
- Analog Synthesizers + Digital VSTs
- Offen Music
- 14.09.2023
https://offen.bandcamp.com/album/acid-drones
Thomas Lea Clarke also co-runs Phase Group Records: https://phasegroup.bandcamp.com/
And releases music as MR TC: https://www.discogs.com/artist/4733261-MR-TC
And is 1/2 of Trystero:
https://trysteromusic.bandcamp.com/album/sfumare-e-vedere