Michael Price shares Bill Ryder-Jones’ re-imagining, In Spite of the Weather,

By Simon Anders

On August 18, 2021

In News

MICHAEL PRICE

SHARES BILL RYDER-JONES’ RE-IMAGINING

‘IN SPITE OF THE WEATHER’

NEW ALBUM – OUT 8 OCTOBER 2021

THE HOPE OF BETTER WEATHER

Michael Price has shared the latest track from his forthcoming album, The Hope of Better Weather – part reissue, part reworks – out on The Control Room on 8 October 2021.The new track, a re-imagining by Bill Ryder-Jones, takes the album’s title and, explains Ryder-Jones, “My idea for the piece was to use the title ‘The Hope of Better Weather’ to talk about my own struggle with agoraphobia, hence the title ‘In spite of the Weather’. It was quite special for me to be asked to reimagine one of Michael’s pieces as I’ve been a fan of his work for many years now.”

Listen to the ‘In Spite of the Weather’ here

Reflecting on the work, Price explains, “The West Kirkby weather seems to have seeped deep into Bill over the years, and when we chatted on the phone about what he might do for his version, I thought he’d bring some of that Merseyside melancholia into the mix. In the end, his stunning rework feels like the sun coming out from behind the clouds – full of optimism, hope and compassion. He’s a beautiful fella and a beautiful musician and it shows in his words and voice.” In the late winter of 2020, while Price was looking back through his archive, he took a listen to an old collection of piano improvisations, recorded ten years prior. The tracks looked to the weather as a very Yorkshire metaphor for looking at what the future might hold. At a time where we have all been doing a lot of thinking on our futures, these recordings felt more resonant than ever, and the idea for a re-framing of the tracks was born, pairing these originals with new versions, collaborations and remixes to see how, ten years on, what the outlook may be.The new album takes his 2012 EP, The Hope of Better Weather, originally recorded by Price alone in a room with a piano improvising, and brings it fully to life with the addition of a series of reworkings by Yann Tiersen, Bill Ryder-Jones, Peter Gregson, Malibu and Eluvium.

The five pieces, alongside these new reworkings capture a stark beauty, tenderness and delicacy in their tone. But they are also wind-like in their shifting, expansive and elemental essence – capturing an exploration of the natural world. “Nearly 10 years ago when I recorded these improvisations, I felt like I was missing the natural world – things like the weather, the beach at Scarborough and all those kinds of visceral things.” Most musicians, if they are lucky, will master one craft or field within their career. For Michael Price, he’s managed three, with his music spanning across piano, orchestral and soundtrack work. The soundtrack work – for TV shows such as Sherlock, Dracula, and Unforgotten, and films such as Eternal Beauty, Cheerful Weather and Just Jim – has seen Price win an Emmy, as well as receive countless nominations (including a BAFTA nomination and an Ivor Novello nomination earlier this month for his work on Dracula, with David Arnold). His work as a solo artist takes the form of beautiful improvised piano works, such as Diary (2017), or via lush, grand, hyper-detailed orchestral work, as heard on critically acclaimed releases via Erased Tapes such as Entanglement (2015) and Tender Symmetry (2018). His latest release, The Hope of Better Weather, is rooted in the piano world but also exists as a bridge crossing into new terrain.. The process of putting together the release has been an emboldening and liberating one for Price, and he finds himself feeling buoyant about the possibilities of what lies ahead – which includes a new solo orchestral album. “It is super freeing and liberating,” he says. “There’s these little green shoots of a freedom emerging.”