Details are today unveiled of Clouds in the Mirror, a reimaged version of Ride’s critically acclaimed top ten 2019 album, This Is Not A Safe Place, reworked to stunning effect by Pêtr Aleksänder.

The concept for the collaboration was originally conceived in the early days of 2019 when members of Ride contacted Pêtr Aleksänder - AKA duo Tom Hobden (of Noah & The Whale) and producer Eliot James (Two Door Cinema Club) - after falling for the swelling strings, expansive sounds and gentle crescendos of their album ‘Closer, Still’. A mutual appreciation of sweeping, cinematic post-rock was established and over a series of email exchanges a dialogue evolved around reinterpreting the tracks on This Is Not A Safe Space using only the vocals as a guide.

Ride’s Andy Bell says: ‘Pêtr Aleksänder took our album’s vocal tracks and formed an entirely new album around them, and the results are inspired, often really beautiful, and at times, totally mental. They have crafted a delicate web of string and synthesiser arrangements which draws you into a whole other world than our version of the album. I love what they’ve created.’

Pêtr Aleksänder say: ‘Reimagining Ride’s album was a treat. We took a rather unusual approach: although fans of Ride in the first instance, we nevertheless resisted listening to anything other than each track's main vocal before setting to work, beginning exclusively with string and piano arrangements inspired by the main vocal. Focusing on the sentiment of the vocal and re-interpreting it with our own arrangements resulted in combinations of melody, harmony and emotion that would have been very hard to achieve via a more conventional songwriting / composing approach. We even waited until the band had released the album before choosing to listen to the songs in their original state - a strange experience for us given that we knew our versions of the same songs so well by that point!’

Today sees the unveiling of the first two pieces from Clouds in the Mirror, as ‘Repetition’ and ‘Clouds of Saint Marie’ are crafted into something completely fresh and unique, giving a tantalising insight into the album’s direction. ‘Repetition’ sees fragmented snatches of Mark Gardner and Andy Bell’s original vocals intersperse haunting strings and understated electronica, whilst ‘Clouds of Saint Marie’ floats above chopped chords and a light, effervescent and beautifully urgent arrangement.

Clouds in the Mirror was initially recorded in April 2019 at Eastcote Studios in London and finished towards the end of 2019 when Ride returned to the UK from their album world tour.