Stock: 
Format: 
Release Date: 19-03-1999
Label: White Cloud
Catalog Number: WCL11022-2
Barcode: 747313002221
Musical Style: New Age
Track Listing:
| Disc 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Land Before Eden | 6 | Rainmakers |
| 2 | Stone Children | 7 | Immortal Forces |
| 3 | Flamingo Lake | 8 | Inner Hunt |
| 4 | Gathering Place | 9 | Pale Savannah Moon |
| 5 | Ancestral Voices | ||
Description:
In his latest album release, Before Africa, David Antony Clark has shifted continents, crossing the Indian Ocean to set down on the shores of a lake in Tanzania, eighty thousand years ago. This area on the east coast of Africa is now home to one of the world's largest concentrations of wildebeest in the Serengeti and the Olduvai Gorge, and it was here that fossil skeletons were discovered that are some of the most ancient remains of the ancestors of modern humankind. 'When I travelled through Africa, I was overwhelmed by the strong visual elements I discovered there,' David says, 'and I was inspired to imagine the African continent, hundreds of thousands of years ago, teeming with wildlife, the wide open spaces vibrant with colour. While this is all purely musical impressionism, that is precisely what I wanted to convey in my album Before Africa. 'I do a lot of reading before I begin my musical projects. This time I immersed myself in literature about Africa and its early origins, including the works of anthropologists Richard Leakey and Donald Johanson. It was actually through all the reading that I developed the primitive images for this album. I must have read at least twenty books, and before I knew it, I became completely absorbed in a picture that developed into my album Before Africa.
'When I was ready to record, I took my son Stephan to the beach to collect shells, sticks and stones,' David says. A dazzling variety of sounds were banged or shaken out of the many organic materials, then digitally sampled to develop the basis for Before Africa's infectious rhythms. The additional ethnic drumming was provided by Sam Manzanza, a Zairean now resident in New Zealand.
There is a strongly evocative sense of place and mood that pervades this album, something that David Clark does superbly. It is perhaps appropriate that he has chosen this soundscape to be his most rhythmically adventurous exploration to date, for its rhythms suggest the stirring origins of mankinds' creativity. As with his first two albums, he has used a variety of flute sounds, and in particular, some ingenious hand made calls. These are some of the intriguing sounds that give authenticity to the ethnic atmosphere of his vibrant and lively sound images.
Biography:
In the last decade, Clark has roamed the world in a quest for musical and cultural experiences. He has travelled through Europe, the Far East and American continent earning a living teaching guitar or remedial English, picking fruit and tending bar. He even played in festival rock bands in Israel. For Clark, it's been anything but a lonely planet.
His greatest inspiration is drawn from the unique natural beauty of the land. That is also why Clark is strongly committed to environmental concerns for the future of the planet, and he continues to travel often to record the sounds of the vanishing environments and cultures for future generations.
His 'Neo-Primal' recordings for White Cloud include Terra Inhabitata (11007), which delved into indigenous cultures mixing environmental sounds with Maori flutes. Australia Beyond The Dreamtime (11013) is an earthy rhythmic collection capturing Australia's Northern Territories. Before Africa (11022) conjures the vast savannahs at the beginning of time. Clark also has a collaboration with John Mark titled The Leaving Of Ireland (11035) that sublimely pays tribute to the enduring spirit of the Irish.
