In all types of music, the breath is critical. Obviously, breathing is essential to the bodily relationship of singing or playing a wind instrument, but it goes further than that. In high school band, for example, our director would have even the percussionists breathe in time with the winds in anticipation of the first downbeat of a piece. It was a way of getting us all to enter together; simply breathing in sync was a quicker and more natural way of getting all the musicians in the room on the same mental wavelength than having us watch the baton or count in our heads.
Ian Willam Craig’s debut album A Turn of Breath exposes breath’s importance in compositions with a more abstract relation to the idea of performance: throughout the album, the breath-like rhythms of looping tape machines cycle alongside Craig’s classically-schooled singing. Juxtaposing human-produced sound alongside malfunctioning machine sounds — which bring out the “humanity” of human-created gadgets — has been a pretty rich vein of sonic exploration for years, and A Turn of Breath marked a significant contribution to the field.
Initially released way back in 2014, Craig’s now-landmark first album is getting a deluxe reissue on Recital on June 29. The reissue comes in the form of a double-vinyl set (in a limited edition of 1000) containing both the original album and the Short of Breath EP, which was originally released in the form of a limited-edition CD-R at the time of A Turn of Breath’s original release — as well as Fresh Breath, a collection of previously unreleased material recorded during the same period. The whole package will come in a gatefold sleeve featuring new artwork from Craig. Pre-order it here; then inhale, exhale, and check out the special promo video and the previously-unreleased “Heaviness Sketch in Winter” down below.
A Turn Of Breath deluxe tracklisting:
01. Before Meaning Comes
02. On the Reach Of Explanations
03. Red Gate with Starling
04. Rooms
05. A Slight Grip, a Gentle Hold (Part 1)
06. Second Lens
07. The Edges
08. New Brighton Park, July 2013
09. TEAC Poem
10. Either Or
11. A Slight Grip, a Gentle Hold (Part 2)
12. A Forgetting Place
13. Reason Simmers Over
14. Red Gate Drifting
15. Erat Hora
16. A Slight Grip, A Gentle Hold, Pt 3
17. Either Or (Darkroom Version)
18. 6 Years, 33 Million (For Bo)
19. Heaviness Sketch in Winter
20. Genesis Device
21. Interstice
22. Bon Voyage, Wesbrook 210
More about: Ian William Craig
