Arcade Fire mainstay Richard Reed Parry has branched out with various musical projects in recent years, among them a classically informed composition called Music for Heart and Breath, which uses stethoscopes to incorporate the players' heart and breath into the show. Following prior live performances, the piece is set to be released as an album.
Music for Heart and Breath will be out on June 9 through Deutsche Grammophon. It employs the same concept as past live performances, and an official description calls it "very soft, very quiet music, played utterly in synch with the heart rates and breathing rates of the musicians performing it."
On the album, "Every note you hear is either in synch with the heartbeat of the person playing it, the breathing of the person (or one of the surrounding persons) playing it."
This means that all of the music is in time with the players' internal rhythms. The album also features contributions from "a handful of different ensembles."
That's the cover art above.
UPDATE: You can now see the tracklist below. As you'll notice, the album features guests such as the National's Bryce Dessner and Aaron Dessner, Nico Muhly and Kronos Quartet.
Music for Heart and Breath:
1. Quartet For Heart And Breath *
2. Heart And Breath Sextet * ^
3. For Heart, Breath And Orchestra ^&$
Interruptions (Heart and Breath Nonet)
4. I Miniature 1
5. II String Peaks
6. III Wind's Idea
7. IV Miniature 2
8. V Sticks/Tension
9. VI French Guitars
10. VII Freeform Winds/String Drones * #
11. Duet For Heart And Breath &
12. Quartet For Heart And Breath @
* with yMusic
^ with Nico Muhly
@ with Kronos Quartet
# with Bryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner
& with Nadia Sirota
$ with Caroline Shaw, Hideaki Aomori, Caleb Burhans, Shawn Conley, Amelia Lukas, Clarice Jensen, Yuki Numata, Courtney Orlando, Annaliesa Place, Arthur Sato, Brian Snow
Music for Heart and Breath will be out on June 9 through Deutsche Grammophon. It employs the same concept as past live performances, and an official description calls it "very soft, very quiet music, played utterly in synch with the heart rates and breathing rates of the musicians performing it."
On the album, "Every note you hear is either in synch with the heartbeat of the person playing it, the breathing of the person (or one of the surrounding persons) playing it."
This means that all of the music is in time with the players' internal rhythms. The album also features contributions from "a handful of different ensembles."
That's the cover art above.
UPDATE: You can now see the tracklist below. As you'll notice, the album features guests such as the National's Bryce Dessner and Aaron Dessner, Nico Muhly and Kronos Quartet.
Music for Heart and Breath:
1. Quartet For Heart And Breath *
2. Heart And Breath Sextet * ^
3. For Heart, Breath And Orchestra ^&$
Interruptions (Heart and Breath Nonet)
4. I Miniature 1
5. II String Peaks
6. III Wind's Idea
7. IV Miniature 2
8. V Sticks/Tension
9. VI French Guitars
10. VII Freeform Winds/String Drones * #
11. Duet For Heart And Breath &
12. Quartet For Heart And Breath @
* with yMusic
^ with Nico Muhly
@ with Kronos Quartet
# with Bryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner
& with Nadia Sirota
$ with Caroline Shaw, Hideaki Aomori, Caleb Burhans, Shawn Conley, Amelia Lukas, Clarice Jensen, Yuki Numata, Courtney Orlando, Annaliesa Place, Arthur Sato, Brian Snow