If...

If., is the debut solo album from Bill Ryder-Jones. If. was recorded to soundtrack Italo Calvino's meditation on writing in the post modernist novel If on a Winters Night a Traveller and lays out grand orchestral movements side by side with stark, nakedly emotional vocal led pieces that weave a bleak but beautifully visceral accompanying narrative. Ryder-Jones left the Coral after the fifth studio album Roots & Echoes, on which his arrangements hinted at a deeper and spectacular compositional talent. If. has since provided the framework necessary for Ryder-Jones to explore his musical potency in full detail. Taking it's cue from Abel Korzeniowski's off-kilter soundtrack for Tom Ford's acclaimed film a Single Man, If's influences are eclectic and diverse, from modern cinema composers like Michael Galasso (Seraphine) and Clint Mansell (The Wrestler, Black Swan) to psychedelic sorcerer Syd Barrett, Nick Cave and nineties Welsh indie-psych disciples Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.