Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry announces new solo album Music For Heart And Breath

Music for Heart and Breath follows on from 2009’s From Here On Out and will drop on 9 June. Parry describes the premise of the record as “very soft, very quiet music, played utterly in sych with the heart rates and breathing rates of the musicians performing it”.

A statement from the musician adds: “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. So what you hear when this music plays is played precisely in time with someone’s quiet, internal rhythms. Brought to musical life by a handful of different ensembles. It has been a joy to create this work, and even more of a joy to have it brought to life by such a fantastic cast of musical minds.”

You can watch Parry playing a bit of the record at ATP below. The National members Bryce and Aaron Dessner, Nico Muhly and the Kronos Quartet are among those set to guest on the release.

Check out the LP’s full tracklisting below, via Pitchfork:

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