Scottish-born, Copenhagen-based vocalist, producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Clarissa Connelly has a way of pulling the ancient into the present tense. She peppers pop impulses into pre-modern Celtic folk music and splashes it all with contemporary production techniques. There’s a delicate touch to everything she does. Her new record is called World of Work, and it’s influenced by both a George Batallie book and the sound of ringing bells. This is transportive music—it reaches into the past as a means to move beyond the current moment. “For this album, visiting many different and very old bells made me time travel,” the artist told us in our interview, which is below. World of Work is out now on Warp. 

Take us through the meaning of the album title, World of Work.

Clarissa Connelly: “If we had not first awoken to awareness through work, we would know nothing at all.” Bataille put he in there, not we, or she, but we can change that. In George Bataille’s book, L’erotisme, he describes the world of work as our world as we know it, the profane or physical realm. Through our world of work, we can oscillate into ecstasy, magic or what you would like to call it, religious elation? When in movement, in work—or through music, prayer, or any movement really, It can be taking one’s clothes off—the world of erotic desire can oscillate. So I wanted to create a defined world (of work) in the album, where I could expand and exaggerate different states of existence and our belief in magic, in death. The world of work is the foundation of our experiences. 

What was the process of making this record like? Did it differ at all from previous projects?

Yes, this album was first created as a pre-production on my laptop, then taken out, all recorded once again, and then I basically produced the whole thing once more again. It really was a long process. In previous work, the productions were layered until finished on my laptop—mostly myself recording different instruments. On World of Work, I recorded everything again, without a metronome, so it was a lot of work, but I also learned a lot, like how to produce a 25 microphone setup of live drums, hadn't done that before. 

How does the mythology of Celtic and Nordic cultures inform how you write songs?

I wrote the sketches for all the melodies and lyrics for my previous album, The Voyager, whilst walking through the Danish landscape, and making a map of all the burial mounds, dolmens and pre-Christian monuments, but World of Work is not linked directly to mythology. I am however always seeking for patterns and elements that somehow bind the time we are in now with the past, and I wish for my work to do so too. In World of Work I got pretty obsessed with bells, their sound and the great symbolic weight (giving the time, and chime in times of alarm, but also for celebration and death). I wanted to write about our understanding of magic, sometimes linked to Christianity, mythology and death. 

Your music is rooted in tradition, but not without electronic elements. You’ve also made an app that maps Scandinavian historic sites. How do you balance these impulses—the ancient and the contemporary?

I think this balance is very natural, and our understanding of the past is important for us to understand how to handle the future, and take responsibility to make the world a better place. This is very important. We all need perspective, or else we just get caught up in our own little mess of a life when we actually should look out into our surroundings, reach out and help each other. This perspective can be given through many things, but it is always through knowledge that I understand these perspectives myself. For example, the ice age from 30,000 years ago made the deep lakes and hills in Jutland’s Center in Denmark. For this album, visiting many different and very old bells made me time travel, and that inspired me a lot to write this album, amongst other things, ofc. 

On a similar note, what does your listening diet look like? Are you listening to much new music?

Hmmm, yes, I listen to the music my friends make, but I don't spend a lot of time listening to any music when I'm in a writing phase really! He he. I neeeever listen to music whilst doing something else. I think background music is one of the worst things. Maybe it’s my concentration that’s off? Chatting or working whilst music is playing, I just can’t. The music takes over and I can’t listen to anything else. But yes, the good records of my life I listen to very very seldomly. Like once every five years? And new music I've fallen in love with, I listen to when there is enough time and clarity to go deep into the music without disturbances. In the production phase or when I am writing, I can listen a lot to references, how to create the same depths in overtones for instance, or recreate the perfect reverb and so on. 

What are your favorite in-studio snacks? 

I actually just need oat milk for my coffee, I will walk many miles for that! And just can't, if it's not there. Ginger tea is a must for my voice if I'm doing vocal takes. But when I'm in an intense work process I seriously just eat whatever is around. Anything I can get my hands on.