Biography
Philip Clemo works across composition, production, performance, sound design, film, and multimedia art. His signature approach yields finely layered sonic environments that blend jazz, chamber traditions, rock, and ambient electronica, often woven with location recordings. In addition to audiovisual works such as Dream Maps, The Breath Project, and numerous short films, his discography includes the 1997 collaboration Inhale the Colours with Ysanne Spevack, also known as Meena Ysanne; the solo album Mesmer, released in 2012; and SPACES, issued in 2019 as his initial collection of production music. His seventh album, Through the Wave of Blue, arrived in 2024 and examined structure alongside improvisation via his characteristic hypnotic integration of ensemble, orchestral, and electronic textures.
Born Philip James Clemo in Insch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1964, he first took up the guitar during his teenage years under the guidance of singer/songwriter Iain MacDonald, who exposed him to figures ranging from Nick Drake and Tim Buckley to Jimi Hendrix. He soon performed in nearby folk clubs. After relocating to London in 1982, Clemo began developing original compositions shaped by artists including Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie and Television’s Tom Verlaine, while participating in the short-lived experimental ensemble Box in the Sun.
Extensive travel became central to his creative process, as sounds captured in settings such as New Delhi streets, Malaysian rainforests, and Icelandic mud pools entered his pieces alongside contributions from an expansive roster of musicians. His initial two albums emerged from a partnership with violinist Ysanne Spevack (Meena Ysanne), starting with 1997’s Inhale the Colours. Their follow-up, Soundzero, was finished in 1999 yet remained unreleased until 2008.
Clemo’s first solo effort, Ambiguous Dialogues, appeared on Metier Jazz in 2004 and involved a twelve-piece ensemble. The release prompted a tour and marked his initial service as a judge for the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, a role he would reprise on multiple occasions. His fourth album, The Rooms, issued on All Colours Arts in 2008, assembled twenty-two musicians, among them a Czech string quartet, and merged jazz, rock, and ambient elements.
Mesmer, released in 2012 on All Colours Arts, expanded his instrumental range to encompass flügelhorn, bass clarinet, electric and pedal guitars, marimbula, and garrahand pots, among other sources. That same year he directed a version of the video for Sigur Rós’ “Fjögur Píanó” after receiving a stipend from the band. Dream Maps followed in 2016, again on All Colours Arts, as another large-ensemble work tied to a multimedia project that incorporated several short films. His first production-music collection, SPACES, came out on Lift Music in 2019. Serving as creative director of The Breath Project—an audiovisual endeavor encompassing short and feature films plus an interactive installation—he saw his work exhibited at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and subsequently at The Eden Project in Cornwall. Focused on music’s therapeutic potential, his collaboration with Shout at Cancer, titled Silence into Song, received a performance at Lincoln Arts Centre (U.K.) in 2023.
Through the Wave of Blue, his seventh album released in 2024, sustained Clemo’s investigation of form, improvisation, and cross-genre instrumentation.
Born Philip James Clemo in Insch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1964, he first took up the guitar during his teenage years under the guidance of singer/songwriter Iain MacDonald, who exposed him to figures ranging from Nick Drake and Tim Buckley to Jimi Hendrix. He soon performed in nearby folk clubs. After relocating to London in 1982, Clemo began developing original compositions shaped by artists including Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie and Television’s Tom Verlaine, while participating in the short-lived experimental ensemble Box in the Sun.
Extensive travel became central to his creative process, as sounds captured in settings such as New Delhi streets, Malaysian rainforests, and Icelandic mud pools entered his pieces alongside contributions from an expansive roster of musicians. His initial two albums emerged from a partnership with violinist Ysanne Spevack (Meena Ysanne), starting with 1997’s Inhale the Colours. Their follow-up, Soundzero, was finished in 1999 yet remained unreleased until 2008.
Clemo’s first solo effort, Ambiguous Dialogues, appeared on Metier Jazz in 2004 and involved a twelve-piece ensemble. The release prompted a tour and marked his initial service as a judge for the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, a role he would reprise on multiple occasions. His fourth album, The Rooms, issued on All Colours Arts in 2008, assembled twenty-two musicians, among them a Czech string quartet, and merged jazz, rock, and ambient elements.
Mesmer, released in 2012 on All Colours Arts, expanded his instrumental range to encompass flügelhorn, bass clarinet, electric and pedal guitars, marimbula, and garrahand pots, among other sources. That same year he directed a version of the video for Sigur Rós’ “Fjögur Píanó” after receiving a stipend from the band. Dream Maps followed in 2016, again on All Colours Arts, as another large-ensemble work tied to a multimedia project that incorporated several short films. His first production-music collection, SPACES, came out on Lift Music in 2019. Serving as creative director of The Breath Project—an audiovisual endeavor encompassing short and feature films plus an interactive installation—he saw his work exhibited at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and subsequently at The Eden Project in Cornwall. Focused on music’s therapeutic potential, his collaboration with Shout at Cancer, titled Silence into Song, received a performance at Lincoln Arts Centre (U.K.) in 2023.
Through the Wave of Blue, his seventh album released in 2024, sustained Clemo’s investigation of form, improvisation, and cross-genre instrumentation.
Albums
Singles
