Clarissa Connelly

Clarissa Connelly weaves songs that draw from medieval classical sources, experimental folk textures, vintage synthesizers, and additional realms while probing timbre, harmony, range, and expectation. Among the wide-ranging figures who have shaped her approach are Hildegard von Bingen, Arvo Pärt, and Joni Mitchell. She first appeared with the wholly self-recorded Come in Roses in 2015, then reached a wider international audience with 2018’s Tech Duinn, titled after a Celtic-myth spiritual threshold. The Voyager, her third album from 2020, again saw her writing, producing, and co-mixing yet introduced several guest players for the first time; excursions to rural Danish sites such as ancient burial mounds and Viking forts supplied its impetus. After touring alongside Jenny Hval and performing with Laurie Anderson, she made her Warp Records bow with 2024’s World of Work, an album informed by von Bingen’s 12th-century harmonic language, the surrealism and mysticism of 20th-century French philosopher Georges Bataille, and William Blake’s poetry.

Born and raised partly in Scotland, Connelly moved with her family to Denmark during childhood and later studied composition at Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory. October 2015 brought her full-length debut Come in Roses, a set she composed, performed, and recorded alone that presented her ancient- and cosmic-sounding art songs and received a limited physical edition on Danish cassette label Brystet. Wider notice arrived with another Brystet title, April 2018’s Tech Duinn, whose sole external participant was co-mixer Mikkel Bolding. Referencing the mythical Celtic gathering place for souls of the dead, the record pursued the mystical course set by her debut while drawing sonic influences across centuries; its many elements encompassed multi-tracked vocals, manipulated guitars, piano, and 1980s Korg M1 presets. The Voyager added members of shoegaze group Collider and the string quartet Halvcirkel; a summer-2018 walk from Jutland into Germany along a route linking ancient sites supplied its inspiration, and Connelly self-released the album in November 2020. By the close of 2022 she had claimed the Hyundai Nordic Music Prize, toured the U.K. and E.U. with Jenny Hval, sung in Laurie Anderson’s choir, and premiered the choral piece Canons at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival.

Connelly joined the Warp Records roster for her fourth studio album. Extending the varied sonic resources and mystical-spiritual themes of prior work, April 2024’s World of Work took impetus from 12th-century composer Hildegard von Bingen, 16th-century religious reformer Teresa of Avila, 18th- and 19th-century poet William Blake, and 20th-century philosopher Georges Bataille.