Over recent weeks, fans of Mark Pritchard, Thom Yorke and visual collaborator Jonathan Zawada discovered an Instagram profile for a mysterious metalsmith going by the name of Marien Marcel. The account showed development sketches for the visual world of Tall Tales – the new album from Pritchard and Yorke, released on Friday, 9th May – leading to speculation that this account was run by someone inside the project. The account also seemed to show the process of the melting down of fake works of art, purchased on eBay, and the subsequent forging of coins from the molten bronze. Fans have now started to discover these coins appearing in the real world.
Today, Mark Pritchard, Thom Yorke and Jonathan Zawada unveil Tall Tales: The Coins (Forge, Reforge, Forgery), a short film documenting the crafting of these coins. It forms part of the third element to the ”Tall Tales” project, following the album released last week, and the film premiered in cinemas on Thursday, 8th May.
Acting as breadcrumbs, leading the curious and willing to the stories, influences and layers of meaning embedded in the world of ”Tall Tales”, there are 400 hand-finished and individually numbered coins dispersed around the world and being hidden by a growing band of accomplices, so far including The Gallows Pole author Benjamin Myers and numerous record stores.
Lucky fans who find a coin can register their discovery coins and 71 have already been found all around the world in locations such as cemeteries, historic landmarks, nature reserves, and more.
“Tall Tales”, the new album from Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke is now available in a standard black vinyl 2LP gatefold edition and as a limited special black vinyl 2LP edition including a 36-page booklet featuring a wealth of images from the project and lyrics to all the tracks, carefully designed by Jonathan Zawada. Order HERE.