St. Vincent performing at the Brixton Academy, London (Alberto Pezzali / Live4ever)
St. Vincent will present a stripped back version of last year’s MASSEDUCTION album on October 12th.
Now helpfully with an added ‘a’, MassEducation is to comprise new piano arrangements with the accompaniment of Thomas ‘Doveman’ Bartlett which have been performed live by Anne Erin Clark since the release of her fifth St. Vincent album in October 2017.
In a letter accompanying the announcement, the origins of the album takes us back to August 2017 and sessions in Manhattan when Clark and Bartlett ‘faced each other’. “Him hunched over a grand piano, me curled on a couch,” she writes.
“We neither rehearsed nor spoke about how to approach any song. but rather played 2-3 live takes, picked the best one, and trusted in the feeling of the moment. It was fast. Intuitive. Discovered. Raw.”
“I first met Thomas ten years ago. Through many red wined and tequilaed nights in downtown New York he introduced me to so many of the characters and creatures I would later write into songs.”
