One Track Mind

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Scotland’s Olney Clark make music to score those private, introspective moments which fill our days–the time spent alone with half empty coffee cups or having your gaze melt into soft focus at a point in the distance out a window. The duo of Grant Olney and Barry DeBakey will be making things official with the release of their eponymous debut on April 13th, a ten-track opus filled with poignant passages and an affecting verve.

Olney Clark was written by Olney over the course of some tumultuous months, first as he completed his doctorate in his native country of Scotland (algorithmic algebraic geometry, in case you were wondering), then as he traveled from Los Angeles to Texas after the passing of his grandfather and father. Given the circumstances, it should come as no surprise that some of the compositions here carry the tone of the heavyhearted; however, a more noteworthy surprise is how capably executed the sentiments are, steering clear of maudlin maneuvers in favor of sensitively orchestrated compositions.

“Josefin the Writer,” the album’s second song, is a gorgeous assemblage of tender strings, thoughtful piano, and textured percussion and organ, with Olney’s smooth croon acting as the linchpin tying everything together. Olney’s voice bears more than a passing resemblance to Erlend Øye‘s, sonorous and delicate, yet perceptively flavored by the emotional underpinning of his words. When he sings of the titular character, “She is the place I send my mind when I need to see things not as they are, but as I long for them to be,” the listener believes the notion entirely. Indeed, the same could be said for the existential escapism Olney Clark’s music provides–a way of stepping outside oneself to a more ideal, intuitively connected world, if only for four minutes.