Various Artists - Breathing Instruments

The directive for the composers featured on Breathing Instruments was, in effect, to accentuate the ways in which instruments sound like they are breathing. Some have recreated the literal experience of feeling or hearing the human breath. Others take a more abstract approach, where “breathing” is more motif than object of emulation.

From hushed pulsations and distant vocals in Kathryn Shuman’s ‘Objects creating a womb-like environment to Julianna Barwick’s blissful ‘Newborn’ the tracks give sonic form to the experience of emerging from the womb.

There is also a striking concurrence of woodland sounds throughout this collection from the ghostly tones of Emily A Srague’s ‘Flew’ to Cool Maritime and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s dew dripped ‘Daybreak’.

Meanwhile the undulating seascape of Geotic’s ‘Uncaught’ conjures moments of Evening Star by Fripp/ Eno, but supplants that album’s crystalline production with the warm crackle of vinyl.

If we learn anything from Breathing Instruments it is that we are inextricable from the natural world.

1. Dim Arc – Breeze Shapes
2. Sunmoonstar – Sleepy Dragon
3. Emily A Sprague – Flew
4. Fools – I Can See Your Voice Thru The Trees
5. Cool Maritime + Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Daybreak
6. Constant Shapes - Wind Leaf Shimmer
7. Kathryn Shuman – Objects
8. Jeremiah Chiu – Poems One & Fourteen
9. Kacey Johansing – Whales Of Agate
10. Julianna Barwick – Newborn
11. Mary Lattimore – She Remebers Sitka
12. Geotic – Uncaught
13. Andy Strain – Patience
14. Bana Haffar – Circulations
15. Ulfur - Feathered