Synth you been gone

I HARDLY KNEW (ONLY) YOU Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet get reacquainted during their Yaz reunion tour.

Vince Clarke founded Depeche Mode and Erasure, but in between those titanic acts, Clarke also served as one half of Yaz alongside singer Alison Moyet. In short, the man’s a synth-pop pioneer, which makes it surprising to learn the British electronics wiz now resides in not-so-plugged-in Maine.

But the shocking news is that, after 25 years apart, Clarke and Moyet have reunited for a Yaz tour. “I’m surprised [too],” Clarke says. “We were very cautious when we started planning the tour. We just didn’t know who would be interested in coming to the concerts.” Yaz (Yazoo outside the U.S.) completed just two albums and never toured the States before breaking up in 1983. “It’s not like we had 25 years of building up a fan base.”

He’s being a tad modest. Yaz’s 1982 album, Upstairs at Eric’s, and its 1983 follow-up, You and Me Both, are classics—their influence can be heard on everything from Hot Chip to Rihanna. In 2003, nearly the entire British Empire broke down in tears when Yaz ballad “Only You” played in the background as Dawn finally kissed Tim on The Office. That scene, Erasure’s continued success and Moyet’s strong solo career—her 2002 album, Hometime, earned BRIT and Mercury Music Prize noms—kept the fire stoked. Yet when the two met up in mid-April to prepare for the reunion tour—which Moyet had insisted was necessary because the music deserved to be heard live—it was the first time they’d seen each other in 15 years. Moyet’s overture to Clarke had come out of nowhere; in fact, Clarke only saw Moyet twice after Yaz ended: “at my best friend’s wedding and in New York on her acoustic tour,” he says.

“It was so strange,” recalls Clarke. “We never really knew each other. There was no band history. We weren’t gigging around years before we got a deal, and never built a relationship.”

Since few Brits saw Yaz perform the first time around, the tour offers a fresh perspective on the band, not just to fans but to Clarke: He hasn’t played or heard the songs in 25 years. “I don’t really know what a [Yaz] performance is,” he says with a laugh. In revisiting, he’s finding Yaz’s minimalism surprisingly contemporary, free of the excessive neon dressing that dates other music from the era. “When you first go into the studio, everything that you do sounds great,” Clarke says, “so you don’t have to build the tracks up with loads of other stuff.”

Their stage act, similarly stark, places the duo alone onstage, supported by moody multimedia projections. “I want there to be enough space in the track for Alison’s voice to soar, which it will,” Clarke promises. The unconventional nature of the reunion makes it stand out in a sea of half-baked nostalgia acts. At the show, U.S. Yaz fans, just like Clarke and Moyet, will finally enjoy the chance to get to know each other.

Reminisce with Yaz July 14 at the Chicago Theatre.