Fresh off the release of a joint single last month, Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard have announced their debut collaborative album.
Pritchard, who has 30 years’ experience as an electronic musician and producer, first teamed up with the Radiohead and the Smile frontman in 2016, with Yorke providing guest vocals on “Beautiful People” for Pritchard’s Under the Sun record.
The pair had first met when Radiohead last toured Australia in 2012, where English-born Pritchard is based, though their association extended back slightly further (at least in name only). In 2011, Radiohead’s TKOL RMX 1234567 album featured two remixes of “Bloom” reimagined by Pritchard, with one made available under his Harmonic 313 alias.
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Yorke’s 2024 Australian tour brought with it the live debut of the new song “Back in the Game,” which was officially released in February, and is set to also appear on their forthcoming album, Tall Tales. The LP will be out on May 9 via Warp Records.
The record’s announcement also coincides with the release of a new song from the pair, with “This Conversation Is Missing Your Voice” once again being accompanied by a Jonathan Zawada-directed music video. The clip, along with the visual for “Back in the Game,” is part of a feature length film made by Zawada which had been developed in tandem with the creation of the music. A one-off screening of the film will also be announced in the near future.
“Mark sent me a large file of MP3s of ideas during lockdown,” Yorke explained. “There were so many great ones, I knew straight away that I had to drop what I was doing. It felt very much that I had not been anywhere like this before — both as soon as I put my headphones on and started trying to find the vocals, words and sounds, but also, as it progressed, watching Jonathan respond so freely and spontaneously with all his video and artwork ideas.
“It was mental, and I feel lucky to have been involved. I am looking forward to this finally coming out. Tall Tales is very important to me. I hope people get it, and get to hear it!”
The release of Tall Tales comes following a surprisingly prolific year for Yorke. In January 2024, The Smile released their second album Wall of Eyes, with a third album, Cutouts, arriving in October. The records peaked at No. 42 and No. 52 on the Billboard 200, respectively. In April, Yorke also issued the soundtrack to Daniele Luchetti’s drama film Confidenza.
