Emmy award-winning composer Michael Price will release Tender Symmetry, his second album with Erased Tapes, on August 31. 

The ambitious musical project takes in a series of iconic National Trust locations across the UK as its inspiration, turning them into unlikely recording spaces. Price 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. 

The diversity of 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 Price and his accompaniment of 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

Tender Symmetry will land on August 31, with “Sandham” streaming in full below.