What’s better than one UK legend? TWO UK legends.

Tall Tales is a project that thrives in the spaces between genres, drawing on the shape-shifting sonic experiments of Thom Yorke – best known as the frontman of Radiohead – and the boundary-defying productions of UK electronic visionary Mark Pritchard. Rather than imitating, Tall Tales internalizes these influences to craft an aesthetic that feels familiar and forward-looking. The result is an eclectic soundscape shaped by ambient minimalism, moody textures and a quiet emotional gravity. Each track feels like a meditation on atmosphere – somber yet expansive, intimate yet cinematic – rooted in electronic music but unafraid to drift into the abstract.

The album is grounded in an ambient sensibility, creating a weightless, almost floating feeling that carries the listener through its carefully crafted soundscape. Slow, somber synths and sweeping string arrangements anchor the compositions, evoking a mood that is both dark and deeply melancholic. Each track unfolds at its own pace, allowing space for atmosphere to build and emotion to linger, resulting in a listening experience that feels introspective, cinematic and hauntingly beautiful.

The album opens with the eight-minute track “A Fake in a Faker’s World,” an immersive sonic journey that immediately sets the tone for what’s to come. Haunting in its execution, the piece is driven by a persistent one-note synth that pulses throughout its entire length, creating an eerie sense of tension and stillness. One of the most striking elements is the percussive arrangement — disjointed drums and erratic clicks that defy traditional structure, giving the track an unsettling, almost ghostlike rhythm. As the piece unfolds, layers of chilling, hair-raising synths begin to emerge, amplifying the track’s sense of unease and emotional weight. Midway through, Yorke delivers a cryptic line: “A space for some more to come, a click and a thudding hum,” a phrase that encapsulates the song’s atmosphere of emptiness, detachment and quiet dread.

“Ice Shelf” stands out as one of the album’s most evocative tracks, expanding on its ambient foundation with orchestral flourishes and faint choral layers that add emotional depth. The piece balances fragility and grandeur, evoking a frozen, echoing space where sound feels suspended in time. “The Spirit,” another highlight, comes closest to resembling something from Radiohead’s catalog, though it remains grounded in the album’s minimalist, ambient tone. Here, the focus shifts toward lyrical expression. Over sparse synths and subdued textures, Yorke delivers one of his most affecting lines: “I wish you well, pray for peace, a magic spell that sends you all to sleep, the shadows ’round your eyes, I keep the spirit alive.” It’s a quiet farewell, steeped in grief and tenderness, capturing the emotional core of the record with haunting precision.

Tall Tales is less an album than a slow-burning atmosphere. It is an emotional landscape shaped by absence, memory and mood. It doesn’t demand attention but rewards those who linger in its shadows.