Herbert & Momoko - Clay [Strut]

Matthew Herbert and drummer / vocalist Momoko Gill release Clay via Strut in June 2025. An elastic, soulful collaboration, Clay moves nimbly between the dancefloor and more introspective early hours moods, evoking Herbert’s iconic Around The House album but heading off in a captivating new direction. Agile and open-hearted, Clay is an exciting and sonically adventurous record from two of the UK’s most visionary artists.

Centred around Herbert’s light touch, dynamic productions and Momoko Gill’s creative melodic and precise songwriting, Clay is both minimalist and rhythmically complex, drawing on a variety of found sources – from Japanese kotos to basketballs – to give the sound an unmistakably organic character.

Bringing together original sampling techniques, live improvisation and lush, expansive arrangements, Clay is elevated to higher plains by Momoko Gill’s intimate vocal delivery, unfolding with breadth across the album’s eleven tracks, whether on the euphoric melancholy of Mowing or the affecting duet Heart.

Clay follows 2024’s debut collaboration Fallen and Momoko Gill’s remix of Matthew Herbert’s The Horse Is Here. And, whilst Clay marks the first full-length album between Herbert and Gill, the shared passion of both artists to push the boundaries of sound has been crucial in their respective journeys.

For Herbert, that means treating the world as an instrument, making music from all kinds of sound – from a bomb blast in Libya, a horse’s skeleton, a tank crushing a ready meal for Tony Blair, 20,000 dogs, 245 shops and a myriad of other noises. His ONE PIG album – following a pig’s life cycle from birth to plate – remains one of the most ambitious and provocative electronic music works of this century, cementing his reputation as an utterly singular composer, artist and producer.

Self-taught on drums and composition, Momoko Gill’s path to Clay has been equally experimental – forging her way through South London’s multi-disciplinary music scene, taking on new challenges and collaborating with artists including Coby Sey, Tirzah and Alabaster DePlume. Whilst drums and vocals are her favoured mediums, Gill’s multi-instrumental talents were fully on show on 2024’s EP as An Alien Called Harmony alongside poet / rapper Nadeem Din-Gabisi, as she continues to hone her style in the frictions between genres.

With an intuitive connection between their sounds, Clay is a meeting of musical minds that resonates beyond the sum of its parts – a strikingly fresh and beautifully conceived record from two artists who sound like they’ve been playing together their entire lives.