Claire Deak - Sotto Voce (Lost Tribe Sound)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

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What We Say

It was probably my parents radio listening habits that steered me to the belief that classical music sounds better on a Sunday. Self analysis aside, I urge you to explore this phenomenon with the considered & consummately crafted celebration of the early baroque works of two women composers by Claire Deak for Lost Tribe Sound. It's a considered, thoroughly modern neoclassical tribute to these unsung heroines, with Deak conducting quite the ensemble. A fitting tribute & an eminently Sunday suitable soundtrack.

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What The Release Notes SAy

Claire Deak's debut solo album 'Sotto Voce' is due out October 6th, 2023 (via Lost Tribe Sound). This album began as an exploration of the music and worlds of two women composers from the early baroque era, Francesca Caccini (1587-c.1645) and Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677). Deak initially set out to experiment with the surviving historic traces left behind by these two women (music notation, instrumentation, writing by or about them and their contexts during their lived time, as well as more recent interpretations and anything in between).

Up until recently, composer and multi-instrumentalist Claire Deak dedicated most of her music-making to others: for film, television and theatre productions, as well as for bandmates and songwriters in need of colourful arrangements. In 2020 Claire released her acclaimed collaborative album with Tony Dupé (saddleback), 'the old capital' through US label Lost Tribe Sound and has since contributed to various celebrated compilations and remix releases as a solo artist.

Claire’s solo work is heightened by her experiences building unique sonic worlds and swaying atmosphere and narrative within screen productions. She has nurtured a deep interest in timbre and tactile DIY approaches, balancing uniqueness and authorship with the invested collaboration that comes with filmmaking.

Claire also lectures in composition and sound. She presently lives and works on unceded Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Country (Melbourne, Australia).

CREDITS
Composed and produced by Claire Deak, using historic traces of early Baroque composers Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi.
Recorded in a 19th-century wooden church on unceded Wurundjeri-Woi Wurrung Country.
Sotto Voce Consort: Lizzy Welsh, Judith Hamann, Edwina Cordingley, Tony Dupé, Lucy Adlington and Claire Deak.
Mixed by Tony Dupé
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Artwork, layout and design by R. Keane (inspired by Artemisia Gentileschi, João Ruas, Andrei Tarkovsky, Kris Mort and Denis Forkas Kostromitin)
© Claire Deak / Lost Tribe Sound LLC
℗ Settled Scores LLC (ASCAP/APRA)

Titles and their borrowed origins:
Dolce Tormento—O Vive Rose (Caccini, 1618)
Liberated Sighs—Hor che Apollo (Strozzi, 1664)
In Defiance of Time–Sino Alla Morte (Strozzi, 1659)
Dampen The Waves—Lasciatemi Qui Solo (Caccini, 1618)
Quarrel of the Senses (Serenata)—Il Contrasto de’ cinque sensi (Strozzi, 1644)
The Fading Lovers—Gli Amante Filiti (Strozzi, 1644)
A Million Cloaked Ghosts was borrowed with permission from a post by Olia Hercules, 2022
Prefigured (Ritornello)—Il Lamento (Strozzi, originally 1651)

Musical traces borrowed:
Dolce Tormento & Liberated Sighs: Francesca Caccini: Io Mio Distruggo, Et Ardo from Il Primo Libro Delle Musiche (1618)

In Defiance of Time: Francesca Caccini: Io Veggio Campi Verdeggiar Fecondi from Il Primo Libro Delle Musiche (1618)

Dampen The Waves: Francesca Caccini: Lasciatemi Qui Solo from Il Primo Libro Delle Musiche (1618)

Quarrel of the Senses (Serenata): Barbara Strozzi: Serenata Con Violini in Hor che Apollo and Che Si Puo Fare both from Opus 8: Arie (1664) Francesca Caccini: Io Veggio Campi Verdeggiar Fecondi from Il Primo Libro Delle Musiche (1618)

The Fading Lovers: Barbara Strozzi: Serenata Con Violini in Hor che Apollo from Opus 8: Arie (1664)

A Million Cloaked Ghosts: (recycled iterations of In Defiance of Time)

Prefigured (Ritornello): Barbara Strozzi: Serenata Con Violini in Hor che Apollo from Opus 8: Arie (1664) which she borrowed from her own Il Lamento, published also in her Opus 2 (1651) and Opus 3 (1654). Barbara Strozzi: Che Si Puo Fare also from Opus 8: ‘Arie’ (1664).

Sotto Voce Consort:
Lizzy Welsh: baroque violin, viola d’amore, treble viola da gamba
Judith Hamman: modern cello
Tony Dupé: modern violin, viola, cello, contrabass
Edwina Cordingley: baroque cello
Lucy Adlington: lute
Claire Deak: vocals, harp, organ, piano accordion, piano, vibraphone, glockenspiel, mandolin, parlour guitar, bandura, clarinet, bass recorder, handbells, cymbals, organelle, transducers, tape manipulation

With thanks to:
Tony Dupé, Ryan Keane, Dr. Clare Maclean, Lizzy Welsh, Judith Hamann, Lucy Adlington, Edwina Cordingley, the Western Sydney University Graduate Research School, Ksenia Datsiuk and Daria Koltsova. Lastly, awe and gratitude to Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi. I hope I have not further obscured your incredible artistic legacies, but honoured them.

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For further modern classical compositions head over to the Slow Neoclassical Playlist