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COURTESY OF IHEG

Winterpills

"I lost August, September and October. I barely went outside," said Philip Price, frontman of the band Winterpills, recalling the serious work it took to record the band's new album at home - in fact, in the very same room this interview was taking place, with shingles on the inside, big windows and three cats coming and going.

"Those are beautiful months in New England, you know? Not much happened except me sitting up here. I bought this new chair," Price said, gleefully patting the armrests. "I was like, 'If I'm going to be sitting down so much, I want a better chair!' "

Spending one-fourth of a year holed up hermit-like and hunched in front of computer screens, microphones and gear with glowing blue lights resulted in a striking work of art, unveiled on Valentine's Day: "All My Lovely Goners."

Winterpills celebrate with a CD release party at the Iron Horse Saturday at 7 p.m. Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion will open.

It's the fourth full-length album from Winterpills and the band's first long player to be recorded by Price himself, all in the upstairs hall and repurposed bedroom of the Hadley home he shares with wife and bandmate, Flora Reed.

Longtime fans of Price's songwriting know his knack for haunting melodies and his love of film (an early tape from his old rock band The Maggies was called "Experimental Cinema"), but "All My Lovely Goners" is his most cinematic creation to date. Multi-layered to the point of being gently psychedelic, it's ethereal and earthy - epic, in fact.

The recordings have roots - not meaning "influences," but knotty things underneath and unknown. It's a record to get lost in, like wandering into a beautiful and mysterious forest and breathing deeply.

"It's an album full of ghosts," said Price, who wrote most of the record's songs in 2009 and realized they were telling a linked story.

"There's an anonymous soldier, wounded on the battlefield, dying, and he lives his whole life again in his head, in the moments before he dies. He revisits all the ghosts of his past relationships. That was the concept album approach, but as three years went on, some of those songs got scrapped and there were some new songs ... so there's actually a ghost of an album behind the new album."

Local artist/designer Lillianna Pereira created collage-like pieces for the new CD's artwork, which is "very much about people who aren't here anymore, or empty shells of people," Price said.

Also figuring prominently in the album art are a number of Price's photos that he took of the same outdoor view from his back window, a photo a day for an entire year - or, when he was away on tour, a drawing a day.

Pereira and Price's art will become a multimedia exhibit at Pinch Gallery in Northampton, with an opening reception Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. The band will perform an acoustic set at the gallery.

"There's going to be a wall of all 365 photos, printed out about Polaroid-size," Price said, adding that there will also be a video on display. The photos will be turned into a digital flip book ("You can see the seasons change, the light change"), which one can view by peering one-eyed into a small box on a podium.

Besides the art exhibit, there's another unique component to this upcoming Winterpills record release weekend: the People's Pint in Greenfield has created a new beer in honor of the band. The Winterpillsner. It's now available at the People's Pint and will be served at an after party at the Sierra Grille Saturday at 10 p.m.

There's also a high-quality mini-documentary on YouTube showing the band rehearsing and recording, taking an honest look at the process.

"I wanted to do as much as I can to get it out there," Price said of the blitz of activity for the new album. "For me, this is a really important record. I was much more attentive to the songwriting, much more detail-oriented than I usually am."

"All You Lovely Goners" is an ideal headphone album, where even straightforward pop songs like "Amazing Sky" and "Rogue Highway" swirl with multiple textures. "Sunspots (Ruins)" ends grandly with Dennis Crommett coaxing haze and chaos from electric guitars, bassist Brian Akey throwing in groovy licks a la The Beatles' "Revolver" and Price and Reed's voices weaving and soaring.

And Price left room for experimentation, even using some early rehearsal recordings in the final product. For example, drummer Dave Hower came up with a tense and stuttering beat during the band's first-ever run-through for the song "January Rain."

"I was mad at him while we were rehearsing - 'What are you doing? This isn't the vibe of the song at all!' - I thought he was insane," Price said. "And then of course we ended up using it. It's part of the final thing."

Vinyl lovers will get a chance to enjoy that "final thing" April 21 - Record Store Day - when "All My Lovely Goners" comes out as a deluxe double LP with extra artwork, stickers and more goodies.