Bill Ryder-Jones

Bill Ryder-Jones used to play guitar for British band the Coral, but don't expect If... to remind you of his previous outfit. Primarily piano-based, the album exists somewhere between the worlds of Erik Satie and Michael Nyman, with some interesting original touches. It was conceived as a soundtrack of sorts to Italo Calvino's postmodernist novel, If On A Winter's Night A Traveler. Ryder-Jones's piano is augmented by grand, if at times histrionic, strings provided by the Liverpool Philharmonic and interwoven with various pop elements. "Enlace" has a surprisingly Beatles-esque guitar solo and several tracks on the album contain vocals. "Le Grand Desordre" stands out the most stylistically, with Ryder-Jones singing while playing a squeaky stringed acoustic, made all the more emotive for the sombre cello that enters midway through. If... is a bravely conceptual and enjoyable hybrid of pop structures and classical compositions, and, although unexceptional in the world of contemporary classical, in the realm of soundtracks, it holds up very well.