Ian William Craig - A Turn Of Breath

patient sounds is a great label

http://patientsoundswindow.blogspot.com/2016/01/dj-saturday-mage-presents-on-dublab.html

here's a mix that has some other ps stuff coming out in 2016

this is gonna be my summer jam! rockin' new tune from a new album:

https://soundcloud.com/fatcatrecords/ian-william-craig-a-single-hope#t=0:00

This is more of a "song" than I wanted it to be. I know that sounds ridiculous but...someone feel me?

i kinda like that about it.

no, don't think i like his singing here.

Ian William Craig is a trained operatic vocalist who combines his voice with analogue synthesizers, reel-to-reel machines, and faulty tape decks to create sublime cascades of unpredictable decay and beauty. His music engages with the operatic and orchestral, submerging them under a shifting palette of vocal improvisations, analogue tape hiss and billowing clouds of erasure. As well as a talented musician, Craig is an award-winning printmaker. Originally from Edmonton, he began playing live under his own name in 2010 in Vancouver, where he currently works at the University of British Columbia running the printmaking studio for the fine arts department. Though classically trained and grounded in the choral tradition, Craig’s early albums were concentrated predominantly around the piano, with his voice merely a marginal presence. In recent years, however, his practice has come to focus increasingly around his powerful voice, as can again be witnessed on Centres.

Ian's first release for FatCat’s pioneering 130701 imprint (Max Richter, Hauschka, Dustin O’Halloran, Jóhann Jóhannsson, etc) Centres is actually his ninth full-length album, the majority of which were self-released digitally or in limited cassette editions. His last two full lengths (‘A Turn of Breath’, 2014; and ‘Cradle for the Wanting’, 2015) were issued physically on the excellent California label, Recital Program and received glowing press and placements in numerous critics’ end of year lists (including Mojo / NY Times / Rolling Stone). The Guardian marveled how “to be both wildly experimental and fantastically listenable is a skill that precious few people possess, but Craig has it … truly brilliant,” whilst Mojo remarked on "a blissfully disquieting choral suite, moving from the corroded cries of counter-tenor ghosts to a kind of abstract Buckleyesque hearbreak, as if some lovelorn romantic troubadour had been summoned forth from the recording of séances on old shellac 78s."

About Centres:

Fundamentally distressed yet texturally lush, Centres is an immensely deep, rich and rewarding listen. It was recorded in an assortment of studio and other locations across his Vancouver hometown: in concert halls and classrooms; train-yards and live rooms, as well as Craig’s own home. It was created using a mixture of sources - synthesizer, Hammond organ, guitar, accordion, wire recorder, loop station, Craig’s array of re-purposed tape decks and “cassette choir”. The songs were created manipulating tape loops through two or three decks at once to create strange deteriorating delays with different colors. Craig would then circuit-bend the bias to create odd kinds of distortion, or bend the sound back into itself so it feeds back in unpredictable ways.

Continually honing and pushing this process, the album shows a quite brilliant attention to textural detail. Morphing, swirling, scouring, shimmering, it continually expands and contracts around you. Forging a harmonically gorgeous and utterly immersive listening experience, it pulls you from the rousing, slow-build of the opening ‘Contain (Astoria Version)’ through the standout ‘A Single Hope’, with its huge bass and Hammond organ swells, and through shifting cloud-zones of ‘Drifting to Void on All Sides’ or ‘Power Colour Spirit Animal’, the Nico-esque accordion opening of ‘The Nearness’, and back to the cyclical ending of ‘Contain (Cedar Version)’, one of the cleanest and sparest tracks here - pared back to the purity of a single voice and guitar.

Centres is an astounding album that stands with a similarly unique sense of vision and integrity as the likes of William Basinski or Colin Stetson.

Ian William Craig will also be heading out on his first ever UK / EU tour this August. Details to follow shortly.

LISTEN: Ian William Craig - "A Single Hope" -
https://soundcloud.com/fatcatrecords/ian-william-craig-a-single-hope/s-HFCsZ

PHYSICAL PRE-ORDER: Ian William Craig - Centres
http://store.fatcat-usa.com/products/centres

DIGITAL PRE-ORDER: Ian William Craig - Centres
https://ianwilliamcraig.bandcamp.com/album/centres

definitely moving in more of a song-based, Eluvium-ish direction. which is fine by me.

my pal marc is a superfan:

http://www.npr.org/2016/06/01/479450006/songs-we-love-ian-william-craig-the-nearness

He has a new LP of archival material coming soon on Aguirre Records:

http://aguirrecords.com/Shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=35&product_id=443

Forced Exposure usually stocks their stuff but it's not showing up there yet:

http://www.forcedexposure.com/Labels/AGUIRRE.RECORDS.BELGIUM.html

Turn of Breath was phenomenal; I had already preordered Centres but will gladly pick up a copy of Aguirre's reissue once I don't have to ship it from Europe.

album stream:

https://soundcloud.com/fatcatrecords/sets/ian-william-craig-centres-1?mc_cid=20155c60d7

Niiiice. odd having words I can make out, though.

Yes, the quavery campfire vocal ballads make it bearable, the quavery instrumental campfire strata, not so much. Either way, it's not like I need musical sources of emotional stasis, or basic sorrow-misery-tedium, esp. in the Summer of '16.

The new Mogwai was a much better companion the day after Orlando, and still is.

love the new mogwai, but I really do like this too. A Turn of Breath probably still my favourite, though.

still wish I could get that and Cradle on CD, because I live in the past

The people I just bought Centres from, plus a Wolves in the Throne Room CD and the most recent Tim Hecker album, have suggested that, based on these purchases, I might like Delta Goodrem and 'I Love the 80s'.

Have been enjoying this.

bcz it's brilliant

is the new Mogwai as good as Rave Tapes? turns out that's my favorite Mogwai record

Centres is really good

I like Centres a bunch (although A Turn Of Breath is considerably better IMO). Contain (Astoria Version) and A Single Hope make for one hell of a one-two opening combo!

https://soundcloud.com/fatcatrecords/ian-william-craig-contain-2

With all due respect, Craig's evolution from tape and sound artist into Bon Iver/early Grizzly Bear stuff is really unfortunate. The former was very special, the latter is commonplace.

^^^otm

Yeah, it's a tough and fast decline.

There's a live album:

http://www.recitalprogram.com/durbe/

It's up for NYP on Bandcamp now fyi

New collection:

https://www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/premiere-ian-william-craig-some-absolute-means

DJ Mag mix:

https://djmag.com/content/podcast-114-ian-william-craig

Have people gone cold on IWC?

I could have weeped playing "Contain" earlier. So beautiful. (Disclaimer: have got home from work, drank wine and decided that IWC should be the Xmas soundtrack).

He's Christmas-y, right?

people go cold on everything these days

Haven't heard the recent collection but thanks for the reminder

I think Threshholder is better than the last one.

I've got a lot of time for "Slow Vessels" and play it a lot, often in the middle of the night when I have insomnia. If it had been the only thing he'd done, I'd have been less interested ... but I don't mind that there is light and shade in his catalogue.

Have there been any decent interviews about his art rather than his music?

Minor Pieces:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=reH405dth3w

Just played a "live session" that felt a bit too sing-songy.

Having been listening to "Centres" at silly o'clock in the morning, when I've not been able to sleep. I'd forgotten that I've said similar before ("I've got a lot of time for "Slow Vessels" and play it a lot, often in the middle of the night when I have insomnia.")

I definitely own things since "Slow Vessels" but sort of lost track/not played them.

https://ianwilliamcraig.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-magnesium-173