Two of Depeche Mode's founders have reunited for a techno project. Martin Gore and Vince Clarke are working together on a new album, their first full-length collaboration since Depeche Mode's 1981 debut, Speak & Spell. "Even though it will probably be finished quite soon," Gore warned, "it might not see the light of day for a while."
Word of Clarke and Gore's reconciliation came late last year, about 30 years after Clarke quit Depeche Mode to form Yazoo and later Erasure. After "having a few beers", Clarke told the Quietus, he wrote to Gore and proposed they make a "kind of dancey record" together. "Out of the blue I got an email from [Clarke] just saying, 'I'm interested in making a techno album. Are you interested in collaborating?'" Gore recalled this week. "He said, 'No pressure, no deadlines,' so I said, 'OK,' and that's what we've been doing the last six months."
The duo have apparently finished recording and proceeded to mixing their collection of new songs. "We didn't have conversations about it," Gore admitted. "It was more just like emails and filesharing. It was something completely different – no vocals, all instrumental stuff." There is no planned release date, as both men are busy with their own projects: Clarke is preparing a 14th Erasure album and Depeche Mode's new remix album has just been released.
They may not be new songs, but Depeche Mode's Remixes 2: 81-11 may still be revelatory to fans of the synth-pop act. Not only is Clarke back in the fold, remixing 1987's Behind the Wheel, but Alan Wilder, who quit the group in 1995, has also returned, remixing the song In Chains. Despite these cameos, Depeche Mode officially remains a three-piece, consisting of Gore, Dave Gahan and Andy Fletcher.
