It's music that deals with breath by NY-based violinist Michi Wiancko, Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad, vocalist/violinist Caroline Shaw, and Montreal cellist Rebecca Foon.
In the words of Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh, “Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.” Violinist and composer Michi Wiancko, in her work, “Planetary Candidate” digs “into the known reality of one’s breath while perpetually searching for something outside the world one was born into.” She tackles this world outside of the western classical tradition by using some experimental sonic approaches to her playing: swapping out her bow for a wooden kitchen spoon, plucking the strings with a library card, and dragging seashells across the strings.
Also, hear Montreal-based one-woman band, Saltland, aka cellist Rebecca Foon (Esmerine, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Set Fire To Flames.) The work, “To Allow Us All To Breathe”, comes from her record, A Common Truth, an intense meditation about climate change was inspired by the film An Inconvenient Truth. Then, listen to work by Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad for Russian-born American violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman (Brooklyn Rider, The Knights, Silk Road Ensemble). The work is called “O”, the symbol that represents one of the most abundant elements – and the one without which we suffocate and die.
There’s also work by vocalist and composer Caroline Shaw, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Partita for 8 Voices, and much more. - Caryn Havlik
#4644, Music About Breath (First aired 7/20/22)
ARTIST: Roomful of Teeth
WORK: Caroline Shaw: Partita for 8 Voices: Sarabande [1:00]
RECORDING: Roomful of Teeth
SOURCE: New Amsterdam NWAM 041
INFO: roomfulofteeth.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Michi Wiancko
WORK: Planetary Candidate [11:03]
RECORDING: Planetary Candidate
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: michiwiancko.bandcamp.com | newamrecords.com
ARTIST: Saltland (Rebecca Foon)
WORK: To Allow Us All To Breathe [4:35]
RECORDING: A Common Truth
SOURCE: Constellation Records 123
INFO: cstrecords.com
ARTIST: Johnny Gandelsman
WORK: Clarice Assad: O [5:24]
RECORDING: This Is America
SOURCE: In A Circle Records
INFO: inacircle-records.com
ARTIST: Roomful of Teeth
WORK: Caroline Shaw: Partita for 8 Voices: Sarabande [4:49]
RECORDING: Roomful of Teeth
SOURCE: New Amsterdam NWAM 041
INFO: roomfulofteeth.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Arooj Aftab
WORK: Saans Lo [7:31]
RECORDING: Vulture Prince
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: aroojaftab.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Lea Bertucci
WORK: Refrain (A Shortness of Breath) [0:58]
RECORDING: A Visible Length of Light
SOURCE: Cibachrome Editions
INFO: leabertucci.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Paola Prestini & Jeffrey Ziegler, Nels Cline, Tanya Tagaq, Cornelius Duffalo, David Cossin
WORK: We Breathe Again [8:09]
RECORDING: Houses of Zodiac: Poems for Cello
SOURCE: National Sawdust
INFO: paolaprestini.bandcamp.com | nationalsawdust.org