Michael Price - Entanglement (2015)

More Erased Tapes loveliness, this time from English composer Michael Price.  Having amassed several film and TV scores to his name in the past 20 years, often in collaboration with David Arnold, Entanglement gave Price his first opportunity to create an album in its own right.  His guiding principle here was "to make an album that sounded like a dark, Berlin record store discovery from the 30s. Something that had timeless emotive power, and pre-digital rawness".  And this he did, with a string orchestra, synths, electronic and tape effects, using vintage technology whenever possible - that wobbly fragility at the beginning of The Attachment comes from using a 1940s magnetic disk recorder.

Fans of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter et al will find a lot to love here.  As in their case, it's obvious that a seasoned soundtracker is at work, but on an album untroubled by outside commissioning, the composer's ambition and love for their craft can really let loose.  Entanglement's nine pieces find Price in an often melancholy, but always evocative mood, whether focusing in on his own piano playing (the church bell-like tones of Easter) or filling out the sound with various shades of strings.  Ambient city sounds, recorded by Price on his phone, give Budapest an extra travelogue authenticity.  On two particular highlights, Maitri and The Uncertainty Principle, a guest soprano is featured (words below), which brought to mind for me Hans Abrahamsen's Let Me Tell You, or even Górecki's 3rd.  Don't miss this gorgeous album.

link

Maitri

No one minded that

The flowers' beauty faded.

And I saw myself in the world grow old

As the rain went on falling.

(a waka by Ono no Komachi, 825-900)

The Uncertainty Principle

Autumn evening.

With her sleeve

She wipes a mirror.

(a haiku by Yosa no Buson, 1716-1784)