This is a beautiful anthology of ambient music, transporting the listener with collaborations from some of the globe’s best contemporary composers.
Courtesy of Someone Great PR ~ album release date October 8, 2022 via Manners McDade
Vince Pope is perhaps best known for writing music for hit TV shows like Black Mirror, Misfits and Wallander. His soundtracks have seen him nominated for a BAFTA and win Royal Television Society Awards for best music. As a pianist and composer, Pope’s music crosses the boundaries of classical, electronica and jazz and has a neoclassical aesthetic reminiscent of composers such as Johann Johannsson, Olafur Arnalds and Max Richter. Now, he is preparing to release his third studio album, Together Apart, an ambitious collection of collaborations with composers from across the globe which is set to be released on October 7th via Manners McDade.
During the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, with a desire for connection, Pope began to work on his new album Together Apart, a literal coming together of artists from all over the world. “I wanted to create something that had a kind of global feel in terms of the artist that I would collaborate with,” he says. “It was important to me that I tried to work with people from as far afield as possible. I think the idea that we can be connected by music, even though we are separated by great distance and culture, is what is important. Divided by language, ideas, history, but united by the desire to create music,” he continues.
Working with artists from a wide range of countries, such as Australia, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Poland and Canada, the songs on Together Apart were all composed remotely, via Zoom, emails and the telephone. “It is a strange and beautiful thing that music, possibly the most interactive and performative of the arts, could be created like this. Together Apart. Music, the language that all of us understand and that needs no translation,” says Pope.
The album opens with new single ‘Concrete Clouds’, a collaboration between Pope and German pianist Lambert. Across the four-minute piece, the pair deftly combine neoclassical ambience with jazz piano to stunning effect. “Lambert did so much to my original idea,” explains Pope. “When I first heard what he had done I stopped everything and had to remember its simple beginning. It was brilliant and really I had to fight the urge to put just one more idea in, to create one more melody or variation because it was perfect.”
Together Apart is a beautiful anthology of ambient music. When listening to its twelve tracks the listener is transported not only around the world, but through the many differing styles of some of the globe’s best contemporary composers. Together Apart is set to be released digitally as well as physically on vinyl. There will also be a book of sheet music available, the proceeds of which will be donated to Eden Reforestation a nonprofit NGO that works in developing countries to rebuild natural landscapes destroyed by deforestation. To celebrate the release, Pope will play a special release show on 8th October at Rosslyn Hill Chapel in Hampstead, London.
