CLODAGH SIMONDS has recently returned to recording after a long absence. Her "career" began when, aged 11, she started writing songs, and formed a group with two schoolfriends, Alison Bools (now O'Donnell) and Maria White, with whom she released her first single at 15. After a couple of twists and turns, the group morphed into the now-legendary but short-lived Irish psych-folk band Mellow Candle. By her mid 20s, with sessions for Thin Lizzy and Mike Oldfield under her belt, she moved to New York, where she began to find silence as compelling as sound, and so went a little quiet.. . . . . in 1999 she was once again heard "singing gorgeously" (Wire Magazine) Syd Barrett's setting of the James Joyce poem "Golden Hair" on Russell Mills/Undark's album Pearl & Umbra, and she hasn't stopped since. Stephen Malkmus covered her 1970 song Poet & The Witch on the e.p. "Dark Wave" in 2003, and more recently, she has sung for Current 93 and Matmos. Commenting on an advertisement for a three-day seminar which promised to "help you locate your own true voice", she somewhat sceptically remarked "Perhaps the more crucial thing is to let your 'own true voice' locate you. And perhaps that takes a little longer than three days."
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"IN A WORLD GLUTTED WITH FOLK PRETENDERS, CLODAGH SIMONDS HAS THE KIND OF CLEAR, PURE VOICE THAT MAKES YOU HOLD YOUR BREATH IN WONDER. WITH SUCH BEAUTY AT HER COMMAND, SHE COULD EASILY PLAY IT SAFE; LUCKILY, SHE'S GOT OTHER PLANS. THE STARLIT NOCTURNES OF FOVEA HEX BIND ELECTRONICS, DRONES AND VOICES INTO SONG-SPELLS THAT ARE UNTIMELY IN THE BEST POSSIBLE SENSE; THEIR INTIMACY AND RAW EMOTIONAL POWER FEEL CENTURIES OLD, BUT THE EXPERIMENTAL SOUND-DESIGN CAN BE SHOCKINGLY MODERN. THERE'S AN INTENSE FOCUS TO THIS MUSIC -- NO CLUTTER, NO CLICHES -- WHICH IS BOTH RAVISHING AND RARE." (Drew Daniel/Matmos)
"DOWN-TO-EARTH OTHERWORLDLINESS - SHE HAS SUCH A KNACK FOR MARRYING TRADITIONALIST TROPES AND MELODIES WITH UP-TO-THE-MINUTE-AFTER-THIS-ONE
EXPERIMENTALISM THAT YOU'D THINK SHE WAS BORN WITH ETERNITY IN HER GUT" (Seattle Weekly)
"A VOICE THAT ONE COULD HAPPILY DROWN IN FOR HOURS" (Pitchfork)
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Her most recent venture is the Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent project, under the name of FOVEA HEX , released jointly by Die Stadt and Janet Records as a limited edition cd-ep trilogy, or as a download from the Janet Records website. It has attracted enormous critical acclaim, and features Michael Begg, Carter Burwell, John Contreras, Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Robert Fripp, Percy Jones, Cora Venus Lunny, Donal Lunny, Andrew Mckenzie, Sarah McQuaid, Pete Meighan, Hugh O'Neill, Colin Potter, Lydia Sasse and Laura Sheeran. Reviews are on the Fovea Hex
myspace, or the Janet Records
website.
