The Organ That Breathes, by Alex Ring Gray

The Organ That Breathes

by Alex Ring Gray

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Tony Gerber A minimalistic ambient orchestral bravo to composer and saxophonist Alex Ring Gray! Wonderful musical visualization here. Favorite track: Phaethon.

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1.	The Organ That Breathes 03:30		buy track
2.	re: meditations 13:39	info	buy track
3.	Flow 01:47		buy track
4.	Phaethon 06:18	info	buy track
5.	Sol 04:29	info	buy track
6.	Eridanus 02:15	info	buy track
7.	Insulin 01:36	info	buy track
8.	Malignant 06:16	info	buy track
9.	Calcified: I. Onset 05:38	info	buy track
10.	Calcified: II. Dystonia 07:45	info	buy track
11.	Calcified: III. Catatonic 07:04	info	buy track

about

"The Organ That Breathes" is a homecoming for composer Alex Ring Gray, whose earliest days of writing music were for his own saxophone quartet in high school, as they could not afford to purchase sheet music. After a decade of expanding into other composing mediums, Gray returns to his primary instrument with densely layered improvisations, textures, and drones; morphing his saxophone into a living, breathing reed organ. Actual organs build the through-line, with several variants (electric, reed, pipe) blending and crossfading with Gray's saxophones.

Much of "The Organ That Breathes" was written and recorded during a period in which Gray had been evacuated from his home due to structural failures, which was subsequently burglarized. Living partially out of his office (Philip Glass's Dunvagen Music), he would stay late after work and through the weekends to write and record in Glass's production studio.

The importance of breathing as a woodwind player led the album to largely become a meditation on the fragility of health. Several pieces were written as cathartic reactions to loved ones' health issues (diabetes, Fahr’s syndrome, cancers), or in remembrance of ones who had passed. Others are focused on the saxophonist's own breath, intertwining Gray’s own performance practice with meditation breathing exercises. “re: meditations” showcases his and his collaborators (Seth Fox, Blake Opper, Erin Rogers) pushing their lungs to the limit in an ode to experimental saxophone legends Jon Gibson, Terry Riley, Dickie Landry, and Pharoah Sanders.

The middle of the album follows the narrative of Phaethon, the son of Sol (Helios), who begs his father to let him drive his Chariot of the Sun. After Sol reluctantly agrees, Phaethon loses control of the chariot and is struck down from the sky by Zeus in order to save the Earth from being scorched. Phaethon falls into the Eridanos River, and his path across the sky is said to have become the Eridanus constellation. These recordings gradually become processed and distorted, developing a rhythm of their own through a subtractive process of cutting away at the audio, similar to a sculptor chipping away at marble.

credits

released June 16, 2023

Written and produced by Alex Ring Gray

Alex Ring Gray: Alto & Tenor Saxophones, Organs
Blake Opper: Soprano Saxophone (2)
Cole Bartels: Trombone (6)
Erin Rogers: Baritone Saxophone (2)
Seth Fox: Tenor (2) & Baritone Saxophones

Recorded at Dunvagen Music, NYC

Artwork by Alex Ring Gray

Special thanks:
Philip, Saori, and Rebecca; Alex and everyone at Dunvagen
Michael, Julie, Rob, and Mort at NYU
Dan, Evan, and Michael at cmntx
Mom, Dad, Lyric, Memum, and Grandma; in memory of Billy and Gary
Vicki

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about

Alex Ring Gray New York, New York

Alex Ring Gray is a composer, performer, and multimedia artist born in Nashville, TN.

Working in many mediums, his work largely deals with conceptual processes, gradation over large time-scales, and collage. He has stylistic roots in free jazz, austere minimalism, and folk.

Alex is co-founder of cmntx records, Technical Director of InfraSound Ensemble, and Music Assistant to Philip Glass. ... more

alexringgray.com

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