Fovea Hex - Biography
Fovea Hex is the ethereal and enchanting project helmed by Irishwoman Clodagh Simonds (b. 1953), originally from Killiney, Co. Dublin. It’s a fascinating endeavor, blurring the lines between Celtic folk, ambient electronica, and all-star free improvisation, made all the more intriguing by Simonds’ colorful and eclectic past. At the age of 10 she former her first group, Mellow Candle, with two classmates from school, Maria White and Alison Bools, five years later they had a hit single with “Feelin’ High” (1968 SNB Records), after which they expanded the lineup and released a second single, “Dan the Wing” (1971 Deram), and an LP, Swaddling Songs (1972 Deram Records). While both disks failed, and Mellow Candle subsequently broke up, Swaddling Songs is now considered a folk-prog classic, and it gained Clodagh Simonds cachet within the Irish and UK music communities. She appeared on the Thin Lizzy album, Shades of a Blue Orphanage, singing and playing keys; she was also on two Mike Oldfield records: Hergest Ridge (1974 Virgin) and Ommadawn (1975 Virgin). During the late 1970s, Simonds move to New York and played in a band with Carter Burwell, who would go to gain acclaim as a composer of motion-picture soundtracks. Simonds then got a job with Virgin Records and drifted towards the business side of the music industry.
In the late 1990s, there was renewed interest in Mellow Candle, with its belated reissue on CD. Simonds’ songs were recorded by contemporary performers like Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus. Over the years, Simonds had assembled an impressive Rolodex of artists with whom she might collaborate with, and she began crafting a loose series of compositions over which various musicians might fiddle, noodle, and improvise. The resulting project was dubbed Fovea Hex, and the song cycle, Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent was released as three lavishly packaged, limited-edition discs, with a breathtaking cast of contributors. The series begins with Bloom (2005 Janet Records/Die Stadt), which featues long-time pal Burwell, Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Laura Sheeran, Lydia Sasse, Cora Venus Lunny, Toby Arnott, and Andrew McKenzie from the Hafler Trio. It’s a luminous work that recalls angelic choirs and Tibetan drones; there are Eastern-tinged cloudscapes and kaleidoscopic washes of color and light. It’s folk valor, industrial music, minimalism, and sheer romantic heartbreak, all in one brief CD EP.
The exquisite aural vistas continue on the second part of Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent, and the collaborative process is equally effective. Huge (2006 Janet Records/Die Stadt) features some of the material from Parts 1 and 3, remixed by Andrew McKenzie. He does an outstanding job of transforming the music into alien soundscapes while retaining the ephemeral mood of the original material. The series concludes with Allure (2007 Janet Records/Die Stadt), which enlists King Crimson’s legendary Robert Fripp, Colin Potter from Nurse with Wound, Laura Sheeran, Cora Venus Lunny, Percy Jones, Donal Lunny, John Contreras, Michael Begg, and Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree. It’s just as gorgeous as Parts 1 and 2, less glacial and more entrancing, as strings swirl and tantalize. Throughout, Simonds’ vocals are verdant, lush, and completely mesmerizing. In conjunction with the release of Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent, Simond’s assembled a live version of Fovea Hex, that has performed at special occasions to critical and popular acclaim, including David Lynch’s retrospective exhibition, The Air Is on Fire, which was held in Paris, in May of 2007. Finally, Folvea Hex played their first gig in Ireland in 2008, bringing Clodagh Simonds full circle in a 40-year career of luminescent sound.
