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Richard Reed Parry

Music For the Heart and Breath

Deutsche Grammophon

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Richard Reed Parry - Music For Heart And Breath
Warhol Dervish plays Quartet of Heart and Breath, by Richard Reed Parry
Interview with Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire

Audios

Interview with NPR's Arun Rath
Interview with WMBR: Boston Ken Field

Tour Dates

05/29/2020 - Elbphilharmonie / Hamburg, Germany
1 Quartet for Heart and Breath
2 Heart and Breath Sextet
3 For Heart, Breath and Orchestra
4 Interruptions (Heart and Breath Nonet) / Miniature I
5 Interruptions (Heart and Breath Nonet) / String Peaks
6 Interruptions (Heart and Breath Nonet) / Wind's Idea
7 Interruptions (Heart and Breath Nonet) / Miniature II
8 Interruptions (Heart and Breath Nonet) / Sticks
9 Interruptions (Heart and Breath Nonet) / French Guitars
10 Interruptions (Heart and Breath Nonet) / Freeform Winds - String Drones
11 Duet for Heart and Breath
12 Quartet for Heart and Breath
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Music For the Heart and Breath is Richard Reed Parry´s debut as a neo-classical composer, inspired by the likes of Steve Reich and Brian Eno. Parry is well known for his work as a multi-instrumentalist with the critically acclaimed, Grammy award winning alternative rock band, Arcade Fire. The concept behind Heart and Breath is that every musician involved in the piece generates his own tempo by listening to his/her pulse during the performance. Fragile and intimate, these stunningly created pieces are the result of a conceptual compositional approach that reflects Parry's deep love of music, and his philosophy that music and nature can by explicitly linked.

20 NEW   29 TOTAL
SYND: NPR/Weekend Edition Sunday, PRI/Classical 24, CBC
Direct: SiriusXM, Music Choice
Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Austin
Online & Press: Paste Magazine, NME, Taintradio, Wondering Sound, Billboard

  • Richard Reed Parry gets back to nature at POP Montreal / Montreal Gazette
    Posted At: September 27, 2018 12:00 AM

    I had an hour to kill before interviewing Richard Reed Parry a couple weeks back, so I headed to Jeanne-Mance Park, where I sat on a bench and took in the gently sweeping sounds of the Arcade Fire member's second solo album, Quiet River of Dust, Vol. 1. Let me first say, this never happens. Sad but true, I don't spend my days wandering city parks listening to music. And yet, to borrow a line Parry used a...
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  • Richard Reed Parry shares new solo track - Song Of Wood / Live4ever
    Posted At: August 22, 2018 12:00 AM

    Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry has shared his new solo track Song Of Wood. Parry has signed to ANTI- Records in readiness for two solo albums which will arrive separately on September 21st (Quiet River Of Dust Vol. 1) and in the spring of next year. "‘Song of Wood' started in Montreal on my porch in the rain, with a little loop from an iPhone 4 synthesizer app that doesn't see...
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  • Richard Reed Parry's new solo album makes Under the Radar's '11 best songs from the last 2 weeks'
    Posted At: August 19, 2018 12:00 AM

    We took a break from Songs of the Week last week due to a little vacation by our publishers. So this week we are compiling the best songs of the last two weeks. Hence we couldn't contain the list to our usual Top 10, although we didn't do too badly, only expanding to a Top 11 and a few more honorable mentions than usual. There are admittedly lots of Songs of the Week repeat contenders this week, ...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music For the Heart and Breath makes 'Second Inversion' Staff & Community Picks
    Posted At: July 29, 2015 12:00 AM

    I've been a huge Arcade Fire fan for years, and I was completely awestruck when this album came out.  The whole idea behind the works on this album – letting the human body dictate the tempi, is one of the most revolutionary concepts I've encountered in new music.  I can't really think of many albums that represent Second Inversion SO WELL – the composer/genre/artist cro...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Heart and Breath / Out Smart review
    Posted At: January 1, 2015 12:00 AM

    Nico Muhly is also present on Music for Heart and Breath (Universal Music Classics/Deutsche Grammophon), composed by Richard Reed Parry of the Grammy Award-winning Canadian band Arcade Fire. As you might expect, heart and breath play a vital role in these compositions performed by Muhly, Parry, and Kronos Quartet/yMusic. Described as a "series of compositions that use involuntarily moving organ...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / WCRB Interview
    Posted At: October 13, 2014 12:00 AM

    Canadian multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry, known for his work as a member of the Grammy-award winning band Arcade Fire, takes a dive into the rhythms of the human body Music for Heart and Breath.  A quartet of musicians sit before sheets of music with instruments in hand, casually dressed and waiting for instruction. A rehearsal like any other, except the human body is the metronome; eac...
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  • Richard Reed Parry stops by WNYC: Soundcheck
    Posted At: October 1, 2014 12:00 AM

    Richard Reed Parry recently appeared on New York's WNYC: Soundcheck to discuss, among other things, the origins of his DG release – Music for Heart and Breath. Parry's goal on the album was to represent "extreme human-ness" by directing performers to wear stethoscopes and sync their playing to the natural rhythms of their bodies. Musicians perform the same melody simultaneously, b...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music For Heart And Breath / Classicalite interview
    Posted At: September 28, 2014 12:00 AM

    Richard Reed Parry recently spoke with Classicalite about several subjects, including his new DG album - Music For Heart And Breath. Inspired by electro-acoustic music as well as composers such as John Cage and Steve Reich, Parry directed performers to wear stethoscopes and sync tempos to their respiration. He came up with the idea almost 10 years ago while on tour with Arcade Fire and plans to foll...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / KING: Second Inversion ' Album Of the Week'
    Posted At: August 25, 2014 12:00 AM

    As a gigantic Arcade Fire fan, my heart grew 10 sizes when I found out about Richard Reed Parry's Music for Heart and Breath, an album of original compositions.  When I actually heard the music and learned about the inspiration for the pieces, I was knocked over like I haven't been in the longest time. The musical conceptualization of this album comes from the heart – literally.  Each...
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  • 'Composer Conversation Series' features Bryce Dessner & Richard Reed Parry
    Posted At: August 14, 2014 12:00 AM

    The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), American Composers Forum (ACF) and Minnesota Opera are pleased to announce the third season of the Composer Conversation Series, events of which will take place at Amsterdam Bar & Hall in downtown Saint Paul (6th & Wabasha) February 2015 through May 2015. A co-presentation of the SPCO, MPR, ACF and Minnesota Opera, the Compose...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / The New York Times: Artsbeat Classical Playlist
    Posted At: August 13, 2014 12:00 AM

    Strings, flute, oboe, clarinet and piano are among the instruments Richard Reed Parry, a longtime member of the progressive rock band Arcade Fire, makes use of on this quiet, hypnotic album, Music For Heart And Breath. Add to that: stethoscopes. Mr. Parry's music is dictated by the involuntary rhythms of the human body - the performers' breath and pulse - which gives a delicate beauty and subtle hum to t...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / San Jose Mercury News interview
    Posted At: July 24, 2014 12:00 AM

    There's nothing unusual about a rock star indulging in a side project. But Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry explores particularly challenging musical avenues, and his new album, Music for Heart and Breath (Deutsche Grammophon), his debut as a neo-classical composer, proves to be extraordinarily enthralling and deceptively intricate. The music arose from a fascinating concept -- having the mu...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / WQXR: Q2 Album of the Week
    Posted At: July 23, 2014 12:00 AM

    Richard Reed Parry, a composer and multi-instrumentalist best known as a member of the rock band Arcade Fire, has gradually been building up a body of classical compositions based on a simple concept: the music is driven not by a shared rhythmic pulse, such as the beat of a conductor or a metronome, but by the actual pulse of the performers themselves, who listen to their own heartbeats while playing...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / Billboard interview
    Posted At: July 22, 2014 12:00 AM

    Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry gets to the heart of the matter - literally - on his new classical album, Music for Heart and Breath. While recording the 12 compositions for the set, Parry and co-producer Bryce Dessner of The National outfitted the musicians, from duos to a small orchestra, with stethoscopes and asked them play in tempo with "their lungs and their hearts, the involuntary organs ...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / WFMT: New Release Of the Week'
    Posted At: July 21, 2014 12:00 AM

    ‘Music for Heart and Breath' is Richard Reed Parry's debut as a classical composer, inspired by the likes of Steve Reich and Brian Eno. Parry is well known for his work as a multi-instrumentalist with the Grammy-winning alternative rock band Arcade Fire. He draws his influences from classical music, folk and electronica. The concept behind ‘Heart and Breath' is that every musician involved in...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / NME review
    Posted At: July 18, 2014 12:00 AM

    The Richard Reed Parry releasing this album, Music for Heart and Breath, of biologically inspired classical music, is, of course, the same Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire. The idea behind his full debut is to have performers involved, who include Nico Muhly, The National's Dessner twins, yMusic and Kronos Quartet, who play wearing stethoscopes so they keep in time not with the conductor but their o...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / Paste Magazine review
    Posted At: July 15, 2014 12:00 AM

    Notes fall softly, plucked or stroked. Violins, cellos, brass instruments softly weezing, single piano keys gently depressed to embroider a minimalist sonic tableau. As much Jackson Pollock as Bill Evans, the hushed pointillism is beyond evocative. Puddles of piano, ribbons of strings all suggesting emotions that defy definition. If not a new kind of classical music, it certainly pushes the realm to plac...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / Wondering Sound review
    Posted At: July 15, 2014 12:00 AM

    Between this album of compositions from Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry, and the March release of St. Carolyn by the Sea/There Will Be Blood from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and the National's Bryce Dessner, Germany's storied Deutsche Grammophon label has emphatically thrown its weight behind the notion of indie-rock brand names writing classical pieces. But whereas the Greenwood and...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / NPR: Deceptive Cadence interview
    Posted At: July 13, 2014 12:00 AM

    Richard Reed Parry is famous for making music sound big. As a core member of Arcade Fire, the Grammy-winning indie rock group from Montreal, he wields multiple instruments to help create deep, layered textures in which strings and synthesizers, slow ballads and disco dance tracks are all at home. Parry's first solo album is a departure even from that broad sound. It's a collection of classica...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / Winnipeg: Classic 107 Recording of the Week
    Posted At: July 12, 2014 12:00 AM

    "It's a simple idea but with very complicated potential results. It's music based on a system that can produce a huge range of problems and beautiful solutions." – Nico Muhly Music for Heart and Breath is Richard Reed Parry´s debut as a neo-classical composer, inspired by the likes of Steve Reich and Brian Eno. Parry is well known for his work as a multi-instrumentalist with ...
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  • Richard Reed Parry - Music for Heart and Breath / CBC interview
    Posted At: June 23, 2014 12:00 AM

    Richard Reed Parry is perhaps best known as the bass player and accordion player with Arcade Fire. The slim redhead is currently on tour with the band in Germany, playing the Hurricane Festival near Hamburg, Germany.  The night before their performance, Parry did some performing of his own at a bar in Berlin where he showcased compositions from Music for Heart and Breath - his...
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