Since 2004 Clarke’s compositional interests have made a return to ‘western’ instruments and include Midnight Verses, a duo for clarinet and marimba for the clarinet virtuoso Tara Bouman and percussionist Stephan Froleyks, which has been played several times to great acclaim in Germany and Holland.  A piece for percussion quartet entitled Endgame was premiered in Germany by Klangwerk Münster in 2005. 

He has also composed a song cycle, Secret Diversion, for mezzo-soprano and small chamber ensemble, setting nine poems by the Canadian poet Denise Levertov.  A second song cycle, Time’s Eye, setting texts by Paul Celan and Samuel Beckett for soprano and three instruments was performed by the Concorde Ensemble with Tine Verbeke in the Samuel Beckett Festival in Dublin in 2006. 

Clarke is an SPNM shortlisted composer and his large-scale orchestral work, Statue Circle, was performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under James MacMillan and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2008. 

He recently wrote a mixed-tuning work for flute and two Javanese instruments for the Kettle’s Yard new music concert series in 2008 and has recently completed a large-scale work, Pour Finir Encore, for chamber orchestra.  Future plans include a new song cycle and an instrumental quintet.