Raph Clarkson
Equal Spirits
Wise And
Waiting

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“This Anglo-South African project builds and old jazz connections between the two countries to blend new music from both places into something fresh and rather inspiring.”

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Songs for Childhood
by Raph Clarkson

Songs for Childhood is a collection of four songs, each dedicated to an individual young person. I originally wrote these songs as gifts near the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, and since then have become more and more passionate about childhood, and celebrating it: whether the childhoods of others experiencing it now, the childhoods of those of us for whom that time is now memory, and the childhoods of those to come in the future.

"The merging of the children's voices with the seasoned musicians works so beautifully well and the solos are so attuned to the mood."
Bebop Spoken Here

7 October 2022 will see the release of ‘This Is How We Grow’, the new album from pioneering collective Dissolute Society, led by trombonist, improviser, composer and educator Raph Clarkson.

Dissolute Society explores Raph Clarkson’s interests in contemporary improvisation, European jazz, 20th century classical music, poetry, spoken word, song, and soulful grooves. These varied elements are brought together through a highly personal and expressive narrative, exploring themes of family history, grief, friendship and hope.

This Is How We Grow is a genuinely unique body of work that features children’s voices on every track, combined with the distinct compositional styles of Raph Clarkson and his collaborators in Dissolute Society. The result is a refreshingly original album infused with both energy and innocence, bound to fuel the imagination of young children, aspiring musicians and seasoned creatives alike.

Having lent his expertise to the work of many different collaborators including Laura Jurd’s ‘Stepping Back/Jumping In’ album, Chris Dowding and Rob Milne’s ‘Holding Hands’ as well as Dan Samsa’s ‘Contours’, Raph Clarkson is clearly a musician and creative figure that is very much in demand. On This Is How We Grow, Raph Clarkson teams up with Laura Jurd, Simon Roth and Fini Bearman – the album also features various special guests including Mark Lockheart and John Parricelli. All of these collaborators are well-established musicians in their own right and leading figures on the jazz scene, each adding their own inimitable enhancements to the project. 

As well as the strong jazz credentials of the aforementioned group, the experimental nature of Dissolute Societies’ music includes numerous sounds and concepts that allow them to widen their scope to explore alternative genres. The prog-rock influenced guitar on the track ‘Please!’ and the classical / choral themes on the song ‘Ada Lovelace’ are just two examples of many different approaches to their art that exist across the album as a whole.

As a musical educator, Raph Clarkson is involved in diverse community and learning & participation projects, including extensive work with young people with additional needs and adverse childhood experiences. Speaking about the album Raph says: “My contention is that music making with young people / communities should be taken seriously as ‘mainstage’ artistic work. This is one reason I’ve made this album, to bring together varied parts of my practice and show that young voices are to be taken deeply seriously in terms of what they express and what they teach us.”

This Is How We Grow is an undoubtedly inspirational and unique project that will touch the hearts of many.

"a supergroup… a raft of talent"
Late Junction, BBC Radio 3

What is the Dissolute Society?