*200 copies limited edition* Following the acclaimed Tectonic Plates, his celebrated collaboration with John Butcher and Mark Sanders, Alan Niblock returns to 577 Records with Sonic Breath, a striking solo work built from the elemental encounter between improvised voice and double bass. On Sonic Breath, Niblock treats the double bass not simply as an instrument but as a resonant environment for the voice. Breath, vibration, texture and gesture become the primary materials, allowing the music to unfold through listening and response rather than fixed structures. The result is intimate and physical: a music of shifting densities, deep resonance and finely judged spaces.

The voice moves freely between speech, noise and song, while the bass provides an expansive, tactile foundation. Each sound seems to call forth another, creating a continuous system of feedback in which movement determines tension, pace and form. What emerges is spontaneous yet highly attentive, raw without being uncontrolled. For Niblock, this process also opens a space for questioning conventional forms of communication. The non-linguistic and improvised vocal language becomes particularly direct on “Vocal Protest”, where the voice takes on a visceral, resistant character, moving away from the fixed conventions of commercialised music toward something more immediate and collective.

“Sonic Breath” describes the meeting of the ephemeral and the physical: the human voice and the resonant body of the double bass, breath and vibration, intimacy and abstraction. Across the album, these elements converge into a sparse, immersive sound world that is at once grounded in the body and reaching beyond it. “Sonic Breath came to life by fusing improvised vocalisations with double bass. What has transpired is a compelling interplay and dialogue that has shaped the musical aesthetic and character of these compositional explorations.” - Alan Niblock