With a tongue in cheek record company name, Instru Dash Mental Records released The Clockmaster by American keyboardist-composer Clay Wulbrecht. With a running time of 59 minutes, the 10-track 2025 album is a finely designed collection of modern sounding instrumental jazz fusion.

More jazz than jazz-rock, yet with a solid progressive edge, the freewheeling fusion of sounds on The Clockmaster is driven by a number of different musicians supporting the core lineup of Clay Wulbrecht on keyboards, Rodrigo Cotelo (guitars) and Mateo Ottonello (drums), with many more appearing. Both Wulbrecht and Rodrigo are also credited with “Clockmystery”.

Although Clay Wulbrecht appears to be a young artist, on The Clockmaster he is able to readily assimilate a number of time-honored instrumental fusion styles. Case in point, track 8 “Montreal To Pennsylvania” offers a techno fusion jazz sound punctuated by the staccato trumpet of Jeffrey Parker, giving the track a Mark Isham soundtrack influence.

There are also elements of progressive rock and New Age instrumental running through the grooves of the track “You Think You Still Have Time”. This track is a good mood piece of music and shows how Clay taps into new direction of progressive jazz also noted on “Hit The Ground Running”, a sure-fire pic for prog-fusion fans.

“Though It’s Sad And Painful”, with all kinds of sound effects, has a definite soundtrack vibe and bears fresh sonic fruit with every spin. Sheer musical magic is what it is.

The album closer, “The Fawn II” is very cool uptown smooth jazz-fusion and signs off the album on an upbeat, happy vibe. Clearly Clay Wulbrecht has a bright musical future and things will surely progress from here.

 

ROOTS MUSIC REPORT INTERVIEWS CLAY WULBRECHT

RMR: What was your musical mission on The Clockmaster and can you tell us something about the way it was recorded and where the recordings took place?

CW: The musical mission was to create a magical, whimsical project that is fun and entertaining, full of interesting synth sounds and sonic atmospheres that make the listener picture or feel something. The whole project started out with me making tracks on my computer. Mostly I was tracking with MIDI, using midi drums, bass, and synths, and recording myself on real piano. I didn’t have any plans but was just having fun being a ‘bedroom musician’ (i.e. Jacob Collier, Louis Cole, etc.).

Once I had 9 or 10 tracks, Rodrigo Cotelo, the producer of the album, came into the picture. Rodrigo was pivotal in making the album more human, replacing all of my MIDI junk with real players… Okay, it wasn’t that bad! When he was traveling in South America, where he’s from, he recorded the Uruguayan drummer Mateo Ottonello on all 10 tracks, and saxophonist Ramiro Flores in a studio. Later, the bassist Marco Messina also from South America, recorded himself in his own music studio and passed along his bass stems to us.

Rodrigo has his own state-of-the-art studio in his home in Frankfort, Indiana, where he recorded himself playing guitars and Jeffrey Parker on trumpet. Rodrigo and I spent a week together in my home recording additional instruments, including percussion toys, berimbau, and keys. Funnily enough, this is one of the two times that we were only physically in the room together. The bulk of the project was done through Zoom and Audiomovers! 

All in all, the recordings are an amalgamation of many different people in many different parts of the world.

 

RMR: There are so many genres of instrumental music covered on The Clockmaster. What era of music did you grow up in? I saw your video for the album and you look so young. Who were some of your big musical influences, from rock to progressive and jazz, classical as well?

CW: Don’t be fooled - I look young but I’m currently 29 years old haha! Which I suppose is still young, but I’m also not 17. Some of my biggest influences are in the jazz realm.

I spent a lot of time listening to Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Freddie Hubbard, and Weather Report when I was a teenager. I’ve spent a lot of time listening to traditional acoustic jazz as well as the fusion stuff that came out in the 1970s. Light As A Feather and Heavy Weather are two of my favorite albums.

Later in college, I really latched onto Brad Mehldau and he became my guy as far as something that I connected with on a very deep level. If you were to hear me play jazz, I would probably sound a lot like Bill Evans or Brad Mehldau.

All throughout high school and college, and until now, I’ve loved club music, or EDM. One of my favorite groups is Disclosure, and recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Dua Lipa and Charli Xcx.

I wouldn’t say that rock is a big influence on me, but I did spend a lot of time listening to my Dad’s albums when I was young, like The Beatles, Queen, and Led Zeppelin. I’m definitely inclined more toward jazz, fusion, pop, club etc. Shout out to Magdalena Bay; I think they’re incredible and creative and they’re definitely my favorite band at the moment.

RMR: You and guitarist Rodrigo Cotelo are also credited with performing “Clockmystery.” Can you tell us about that and how did you meet Rodrigo? And tell us about the other albums you and Rodrigo have released, together and as solo artists and how would you compare the new album with the other albums? Who else was instrumental in the making of the new album?

CW: Yes! The Clockmystery! The title of the album didn’t materialize until halfway into the project when we realized that clock-like elements were appearing everywhere in the music. The most obvious example is “You Think You Still Have Time” which has a ticking clock noise in the background. That was intentional. There were also some unintentional sounds in other songs like “Though It’s Sad and Painful” and “Montreal To Pennsylvania” that elicited a steady rhythm, sounded like a clock ticking in either its rhythm or timbre, and thus made us think of a clock theme.

The title, The Clockmaster, then materialized, and we started to intentionally insert clock references throughout the music like little easter eggs, which we dubbed “Clockmystery.” Some of them are obvious, others aren’t!

Rodrigo and I met while I was at Indiana University. He was working professionally and wanted to meet other musicians, so we got hooked up and Rodrigo started the group Bloomerangs, which consisted of me, him, and two other IU music students. Together, we recorded one album, Moments And Fragments, that includes two original compositions of mine, “Home” and “Another Melancholy Waltz.” 

Over the years, Rodrigo has had me play keyboards on projects that he was producing for other musicians, a notable one being Michigan by Gastion Reggio. By ourselves, Rodrigo has released music, but for me this is my first entry in my discography, and together, this is the first project we’ve worked on that is solely my original music. I released three albums of original solo piano music by the time I was 13 years old, but I don’t really count these haha! The Clockmaster is certainly the thing I’ve been the most excited about and the most substantial piece of work I’ve completed thus far. 

A huge thanks goes out to the musicians who contributed their artistry on The Clockmaster, such as Ramiro Flores (woodwinds, conducting) and Federico Navarro Trias (Spanish guitar, Electric guitar). If one wanted to liken this album to building a house, I might have constructed the house - the walls and the floors and foundation - but Rodrigo decorated the hell out of it and I consider this project as much a collaboration with him as my own.

RMR: Tell us about the keyboards you play on The Clockmaster album. You sound like you are classically trained. Where did you study music and do you play other instruments in addition to keys? Tell us something about the way you compose music. Do you write out the parts in notation?

CW: I play all sorts of keys on The Clockmaster. I play classic keyboards like Rhodes, Organ, and Clavinet. I also utilize tons of synthesizers and pads, which come from my keyboard (Korg Kronos), as well as the stock library of Logic Pro and plug-ins that I’ve bought over the years. The sounds I chose from are endless and endlessly imaginative!

I also play melodica on a couple of the tracks, “Night Drive” and “Though It’s Sad and Painful.” My real instrument of course is piano, the beautiful acoustic instrument made of wood, strings, and hammers. I love all the synths, but at the end of the day, I’m an analog guy who loves his piano.

I’ve been playing piano since age 5, and have studied classically. I play a lot of music by classical composers. My two favorites are Ravel and Prokofiev. Ravel writes beautiful, ethereal music that tugs longingly at your heart strings, and Prokofiev’s music is whimsical and quirky. I’ve had teachers in both classical and jazz, and although my degree is in “jazz studies,” I studied for a year with a classical doctoral student in college. That was an illuminative time in terms of technique. I’m quite obsessed with technique exercises.

I also play clarinet and bass clarinet, and own both! I don’t keep up with it as much as piano, so my chops aren’t great, but I remember all the fingerings! Fun fact: I recorded myself playing bass clarinet on one of the tracks, but it got cut in the final rendition!

Composing music for me has always started with a small idea, usually a melody and chords. Something catchy or immediately intriguing. The next and very difficult part is making a whole piece out of it that is interesting the whole time. The nice thing about electronic music is that you can rely on the cool sounds and sonic atmosphere to carry the piece forward, rather than just the melody, chords, and lyrics - if present.

If you notice, several of the pieces on the album are pretty simple, in terms of harmony, but super complicated in terms of soundscape. “Montreal to Pennsylvania” has an interesting intro, but proceeds to become a giant F# minor jam for 6 minutes without much of a melody. What we do with the layers of sounds, horns, and percussion, however, makes it interesting the entire time, at least to me. The same goes for “You Think You Still Have Time.” It’s a meditation on a single harmony with a very simple melody, but I think we create a beautiful soundscape with all of the different instruments. 

There are a lot of parts that I had to write out on the album, namely the horn parts, string parts, clarinet parts, etc. “Though It’s Sad And Painful” by far had the most written out arrangements. Some of the bass parts are figures that I wrote out, like in “Just a Little Bit,” the melody being in the bass. However, anytime there’s a solo, that’s an improvisation by the musician!

RMR: Tell us about Instru Dash Mental Records. They look like they have some cool releases. What style of music does the label specialize in?

CW: Instru Dash Mental Records is the wonderful independent record label of my friend / collaborator Rodrigo Cotelo. Let me put it on record that Rodrigo is an extremely talented and creative producer who is a thrill to work with! I guess he specializes in jazz and jazz fusion, but that might just be due to what he’s done so far and who he’s friends with. He’s also well-versed in rock and metal, and can probably produce a pop record if he wanted to. He’s knowledgeable in all genres of music.

Instru Dash Mental Records definitely does have some cool releases: I would check out Michigan by Gaston Reggio, and there’s a 4-volume album coming out soon of a fellow South American musician who’s a bass player and Luthier that I won’t say too much about, but it’s a big project!

 

RMR: What plans do you have for 2025? Live concerts, more composing, writing and producing? And are there new releases coming on Instru Dash Mental Records?

CW: Our plan right now is to get the album to as many ears as possible. Live concerts would be super fun. Nothing on the books right now, but we talked about scheduling a tour from Montreal to Pennsylvania, in honor of the song that has the same name on the album.

As far as the next thing, I’ve got a bunch of musical germs, and half-finished and fully finished songs saved on my laptop. Lately, a theme has been starting to present itself and I’m getting an idea of what the next project will be. Rodrigo is a busy bee and I’m sure he’s already thinking about the next project he’s going to work on. But for now, it’s THE CLOCKMASTER baby!