Michael Price joins The Film Scorer for episode 2 of season 3! You might be most familiar with Michael Price (at least I was) from his work with David Arnold on the acclaimed and excellent Sherlock and Dracula series, both created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. But Michael also spent five years working with Michael Kamen, beginning on Event Horizon and X-Men, and music edited a number of films including the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. During our interview we talk about all of those. We also talk about, and cover most in-depth, Michael’s latest solo album Whitsun, which becomes an intimate look at Michael’s childhood in Yorkshire, a connection of sound and memory. It’s a lovely, nostalgic album that’s both sweet and melancholic, with a universality that conjures a sense of recollection no matter one’s past.
As we wrapped up our chat, we began discussing the importance of music in one’s life and Michael said: “If just one person made a little moment to play something or sing for themselves or with someone else in their family or with a friend, just that tiny one act I think is joyful and worthwhile…To anyone: if you do find yourself playing or singing, send me a note on Twitter, cheer us both up.” So, if after listening you’ve found yourself playing or singing, but sure to let Michael know (and include me while you’re at it).
Whitsun is available digitally and physically (via CD and cassette) on Michael’s bandcamp, and digitally on all major platforms. Michael’s scores are broadly available digitally and physically.
Have a listen to our conversation below or wherever you get your podcasts (including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube).
About Whitsun
“Michael Price’s new album – a profound exploration of the connection between sound and memory – is out on The Control Room now.
Whitsun expands work he started on 2014’s track ‘Easter’, where church bells in Venice were transformed into shimmering piano textures, but for Whitsun, the sound world that drives the piece is that of his childhood in Yorkshire.
Brass bands and chapel choirs spilled into the streets on high days and holidays, and away from the bustle of town were the sounds of the moors and the sea. The sense memory of piano practice in an echoing school hall early on a winter morning is recreated with haunting fragments of Beethoven, and the ghosts of hymn tunes from school assemblies. With family reaching back many generations in industrial Yorkshire, the connection to place also produces darker tones within Whitsun, chronicling the now empty churches, chapels and textile mills, once at the heart of the community.
On the new album, Price explores themes of remembrance through his single stringed Una Corda piano, his own voice, childhood trumpet, and, together with a range of tape and digital transformations, his vintage Yamaha CS80 synthesiser, played to evoke the tenor horns and euphoniums of a brass band (the same CS80 used by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to make the ‘80s Dr Who theme!). Whitsun is mixed by Guy Massey, mastered by Katie Tavini, with artwork by Paul Rafferty – carefully pieced together with both natural and industrial environmental sounds, to create an enthralling soundscape of growing up in Yorkshire.” – from Michael Price/The Control Room