CLARA HILL - All I Can Provide

Being able to blend different schools of thought and different productions into a single fabric, and conceal them within just the right embellishments, has been Clara Hill's greatest skill. The beautiful singer, raised on house and acid-jazz, has over the years honed an uncommon interpretive ability. She started singing very young, barely a teenager, with Madonna as her idol and plenty of dreams to fulfill. As time went on, at the age of 17, she put together a group called Superjuice with a longtime friend. That kicked off a series of shows in Berlin's leading clubs, and word of her voice soon spread through the right circles.

After meeting a certain Dj Alex, a member of Jazzanova, a strong mutual artistic respect grew between them, and from that point on Clara's path was all downhill in the best sense. She collaborated with house royalty Masters At Work, played shows with her new band Stereoton, and finally released her debut album, the dream of a lifetime, titled "Restless Time". An ambitious and sinuous work, splendidly naive, to be savored in its smallest details.

Compared to its predecessor, this "All I Can Provide" shows far greater attention to detail, revealing a clear openness toward electro-pop symbioses of various kinds, always threaded with a strong jazz vein and steeped in a voice that sounds like white soul from its very first syllable. A disarming vocal delicacy acts as a baroque frame around the electronic techniques - never heavy-handed - that outline its edges; at the center lies a shell of elegant, appealing fusions, always marked by a refined sound.

Past experiences are handled with class - take "Hard To Say", for instance: throughout, Hill employs melodic expansions reminiscent of her past partnerships with Masters At Work; her encounter with Slope ("Just Let Me Know"), then, becomes even more gripping and sensual. The same direction applies to "Did I Do Wrong". Here there's even more room to open up to a more articulate vocal and electric luminosity; the digital rhythm imposed by King Britt (almost) never abandons Hill's soul inflections. These formulas were often the aesthetic-musical currency of post-runway receptions, of high-society Parisian celebrations. The limitations of those sounds are set aside today, veering instead toward a greater naturalness of the "fashion" (sonic) element.

In "All I Can Provide" the beat production breaks free from any rigid crystallization, developing a pop flexibility that fully embraces the melodic structures of today's "song" format. The five minutes of Sylvian-esque contamination in "Endlessly" are enough to elevate the whole caliber of the record, helped also by the exotic nihilism inflicted by Sandboy.

Acidic, mocking convulsions push their way through the opening track, "What For", a sickly, haunting chant. Then again, when a certain Meitz gets his hands on it — an ace of future-jazz and a leading figure of transfigurative remixing — the result can only be excellent.

Pointing out once again Clara Hill's vocal adaptability has by now become tedious and repetitive. Her performances are, as always, top quality.

At this point, all we can do is add our own fragile movements to the seductive grace of Clara's sound, thanking her, perhaps, with a simple "merci tresor".

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06/10/2006