Emmy award-winning composer Michael Price will release Tender Symmetry, his
second album with Erased Tapes, on August 31st 2018. The ambitious musical
project takes in a series of iconic National Trust locations across England as
its inspiration, turning them into unlikely recording spaces. Michael and a host
of musicians and collaborators — including soprano Grace Davidson (featured
on Max Richter’s Sleep) and Shards (the choir on Nils Frahm’s All
Melody) — travelled across the country in pursuit of places far removed from
the traditional recording studio to create seven unique and moving pieces,
straddling the past and the future. The diversity of Michael Price’s choices
ranges from the ruins of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire to the Fan Bay WWII
shelter, cut deep into the chalk cliffs of Dover. All owned by the National
Trust save one, each venue became both the inspiration
and the recording studio for Michael Price and his accompaniment of renowned
musical ensembles, choirs and soloists. "For Tender Symmetry, I stopped
admiring and started participating in these buildings. This began as an
exploration of writing and recording out in the world beyond the studio. I am
interested in where we build our homes in an increasingly virtual world and the
spirit of place we feel as we walk our local streets, our
schools, temples and public spaces. Taking inspiration from a place, and the
stories it told, then going back to that place to record, sometimes in less than
ideal conditions, made the two-year adventure much more like shooting a film
than making a record.” — Michael Price
Acoustics varied wildly as the artists moved from places designed with sound in
mind to locations which demanded the use of miners’ helmets for light and
battery-powered sound gear. The final recordings carry the genuinely unique
sonic blueprints and spirit of each place – from the birdsong in the
courtyard at Speke Hall to the steam-driven cotton mill accompaniment at Quarry
Bank. “When we recorded the piece at Fan Bay in the World War II shelter deep
inside the chalk cliffs of Dover, Peter Gregson’s cello wasn’t at all happy
with the clammy, dank conditions; but to be in the tunnels where young soldiers
spent months on end, constantly on alert for incoming bombers, gave the
recording an extraordinarily intimate, moving quality. At each site, the human
mixed with the historical, and the natural environment of each space comes
through with each piece. I tried to
leave an imprint of each location on the record.” While each piece of music is
named after the location in which it was created, William Blake’s Songs of
Innocence and Experience courses through them as well. Soprano Grace Davidson
sings Blake’s poignant words about nature, religion and the industrial
revolution on several of the pieces including the astoundingly beautiful album
closer Shade Of Dreams, written after the birth of Michael’s
daughter. “The final piece, Shade of Dreams, is part of a group of pieces
I wrote
for the birth of our daughter, Emilie. It, like all the works on the album,
takes its text from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, in
this case, A Cradle Song. As much as Tender Symmetry is about the past, it is
firmly about the future, and all our of shared futures.” Grace Davies,
National Trust contemporary arts programme manager said:
“We were delighted when Michael approached us with this project as it directly
draws on the extraordinary stories and history of these special places. The
sheer variety of sites that Michael has chosen has resulted in a collection of
new music that is sometimes surprising, sometimes poignant, and – above
all – inspirational. I am sure that audiences will be enchanted both by
Michael’s music and our places that have inspired him.”
Tender Symmetry will be available on LP / CD / DL on August 31st
2018. Performers on the album include soprano Grace Davidson, Shards choir,
virtuoso cellist Peter Gregson, as well as new music experimentalists Immix
Ensemble and Manchester Collective, among others.