Songs of Silence (Vince Clarke album)

Songs of Silence is a studio album by British electronic musician Vince Clarke, released through Mute Records on 17 November 2023. It has received positive reviews from critics. The album was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic with Clarke building all songs around a modular synthesizer. Each track is based on a single note that is held throughout the composition, with other musical elements added to it.

The album does not include the synth-pop styles that Clarke has explored in his earlier career and instead has somber tones that reflect his anxiety around the world during COVID and responds to his grief at losing friends and former bandmates during the recording, with sadness reflected in the sounds.

Reception
Editors at AllMusic rated this album 3.5 out of 5 stars, with critic Marcy Donelson writing that "Songs of Silence showcases instincts and inventiveness well beyond that of your typical synth-instrumentals diversion".

Writing for The Guardian, Chal Ravens rated this album 3 out of 5 stars and noted the sense of dread and anxiety that the music conveys. Editors at Louder Than War chose this for Album of the Week and critic Paul Scott-Bates speculated that ambient music listeners will call this "a faultless piece of genius" and characterized it as "sheer flawlessness" and "an album so perfect and so precise that it is impossible to fault", and additionally wrote that calling it "a classic of the modern age would be no exaggeration".

Ben Hogwood of musicOMH rated this release 4 out of 5 stars and compared this to Clarke's synth-pop music stating that "Clarke here uses drones as his musical currency, rather than intricate synth lines or memorable chorus hooks" and continued that these "soundscapes are often as craggy and imposing as his close-up black and white album packshot image, rising before the observer at daunting angles or closing in like the outskirts of a dense forest".

Editors at Paste included Songs of Silence among the best albums of the week, with critic Robert Ham calling it "a series of mood pieces with each one glowing from within as if energized by a core of molten rock or radioactive material". In Resident Advisor, Alastair Shuttleworth wrote that this "compelling debut", "Clarke sustains a mood somewhere between unease and awe" that "holds its own with a coherent and convincing voice" amongst other electronic.

Fiona Shepherd of The Scotsman gave this 3 out of 5 stars, stating that this work is in "stark contrast" to Clarke's other music, being "a symphony of drones, oscillation and moody synthscapes, all carved from a lockdown obsession with the Eurorack modular synth system".

Track listing
All tracks are written by Vince Clarke except "The Lamentations of Jeremiah", written by Clarke and Reed Hays.


 * 1) "Cathedral" – 4:21
 * 2) "White Rabbit" – 4:40
 * 3) "Passage" – 3:10
 * 4) "Imminent" – 4:56
 * 5) "Red Planet" – 4:40
 * 6) "The Lamentations of Jeremiah" – 4:23
 * 7) "Mitosis" – 4:51
 * 8) "Blackleg" – 3:06
 * 9) "Scarper" – 3:47
 * 10) "Last Transmission" – 4:46

Personnel

 * Vince Clarke – modular synthesizer, production, mixing
 * Stefan Betke – mastering
 * Eugene Richards – photography
 * Paul A. Taylor – art direction