Ian William Craig - A Turn of Breath - Extended (2018)

Ian William Craig’s enchanting début album, ‘A Turn of Breath’ - the record which first attracted the attention of Fatcat’s 130701 sublabel, and brought worldwide attention to Ian’s singular flux of oxidised ambient, neo-classical composition and avant-garde electronics - now receives an extended reissue edition on Sean McCann’s marvellous Recital Program

The 2014 release’s 12 tracks are now supplemented by 10 previously unreleased works stemming from the same recording sessions. Revisiting the record after years, it patently still warrants comparison with everyone from Philip Jeck to Kara-Lis Coverdale and Leyland Kirby, rendering one of those listening experiences that get under the nails, in your eyes with an effect that, once felt, is hard to shake.

That feeling spills over into Ian’s 10 new previously unheard works. They include a tremulous dose of spectral ambient folk-soul in Erat Hora, and a 3rd part of his organ-based song cycle A Slight Grip, A Gentle Hold, while the crackly textures and disembodied voices of Either Or (Darkroom Version) and the ten minute beauty Genesis Device could have almost come from Bellows or The Caretaker’s recent LPs, and Bon Voyage, Westbrook 210 blesses the suite with a beautifully elegiac sense of closure.