Jay Clarkson's 'Kindle' vinyl release

Jay Clarkson’s 1999 masterpiece Kindle, will be available on vinyl from the 22nd October 2021 for the first time.

Clarkson is one of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s most singular songwriters, with a history that includes membership of The Playthings and The Expendables, both groups who released records with the legendary New Zealand label Flying Nun, as well as subsequent solo albums, along with her bands Breathing Cage and (now) The Containers.

Clarkson wrote and recorded Kindle after relocating from Christchurch to Dunedin in the mid ‘90s, settling into a new mode of music making and embracing the possibilities of home recording. Supported with funding from Creative NZ, Clarkson bought a four-track recorder – the tried and trusted Tascam 424 Mark II, the cornerstone of any good, self-respecting home studio – and set about to make perhaps her most hushed, gorgeous set of songs yet.

For the songs on Kindle, Clarkson approached lyric writing differently – for a number of songs, she used what she has called the “open a book at random and point your finger” method to get her creativity flowing, borrowing (with adjustments) from Graham Greene and Thomas Merton, amongst others, locating evocative potential in found language and then expanding outwards. Elsewhere, Clarkson’s songs are sparked by people and events that coincide with her everyday life, or they become more philosophically reflective, as in the hypnotic “Wheeling”, where a repeating, intricate web of guitar underscores a song reflecting life’s dualities and circularity.

The album’s sound world is deep and dappled, with clacking drum machines (loaned to Jay by Robert Scott of The Clean and The Bats), richly wound guitars, and humming keyboards all providing a perfect setting for Clarkson’s astonishing voice, which is at once generous and wry. Clarkson has previously reflected upon the “transitional head-space” she was in while writing and recording Kindle, and that certainly seems to have informed the emotional complexity of these songs and performances – it’s an album of grace and wisdom.

Clarkson continues to perform live when circumstances allow, with her group The Containers, and in 2016 was invited to perform at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow. But Kindle stands as singular in her catalogue and her career – a moment of inwards reflection, things pared back to basics, Jay alone in the home studio, writing for the intimacies of the moment.

Pre orders for Kindle are now available via Rose Hobart on Bandcamp , Flying Out, Rough Trade and Forced Exposure.