Baird and Williams Under Pressure
Ka Baird and Chris Ryan Williams operate as a fascinating sonic pairing, embodying a study in creative contrasts. Baird, the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, leans into density and percussive force, while Williams, the trumpeter, excels in creating subliminal textures and blurred, dissolving tones. Despite these distinct stylistic approaches, the duo shares a profound musical obsession: they both utilize electronics to manipulate sound beyond mere recognition, crafting music with a distinct, haunting interiority, reminiscent of gradually constricting tunnels or slowly flooding grottos.
Their collaborative work is perhaps best captured on their 2024 offering, Enthalpy” class=”in-text”>Enthalpy. On this project, the tension between their methods creates an intriguing harmony. Baird contributes his signature glottal stops and fricative mouth noises—echoes of artists like Mike Patton or Jonathan Davis—woven into tracks such as Shapeshifting” class=”in-text”>Shapeshifting and Target Practice” class=”in-text”>Target Practice. Yet, beneath these sharp textures, Williams’ influence emerges through oblique, thrumming melodies and grainy, nocturnal drones, adding depth and atmosphere to the soundscape.
The resulting music is built on gestural looseness, favoring spontaneous composition over rigid structure. Songs on Enthalpy” class=”in-text”>Enthalpy are typically short and built on basic, yet potent, pairings. Baird’s punchy flute syncopations, which often sound like poison darts launched from a blowpipe, frequently interact with Williams’ elongated trumpet smears, which are cut up and spliced together. This combination achieves an uneasy, melancholy harmony.
The hypnotic quality of their sound reaches its peak on tracks like Vapour Trails” class=”in-text”>Vapour Trails, which evokes the atmospheric dread of a John Carpenter film. In other instances, the musicians seem to take turns, dividing the song into distinct sections, allowing their individual voices and instruments to occupy separate, yet interdependent, spaces.
The title track of the album, Enthalpy” class=”in-text”>Enthalpy, is an extended statement, clocking in at nine and a half minutes. It begins in a very Baird-forward manner, filled with valve rustles, batlike vocal chirps, suction sounds, and sibilance. As the piece builds, it shifts into near-industrial levels of ambiguous grind, evolving into processed waves of flute, trumpet, and synth. These waves grow thicker and choppier, their sources becoming obscured until they merge into a surprisingly musical maelstrom of eddying drones, corrugated breath, and mussed melody. The piece achieves a strange coherence through its dissonances and transformations, striking a perfect balance.
However, the process of making the music is just as vital as the final product. This pursuit of uncompromising, out-there sounds means that the journey often involves exposing the dead ends and false starts of composition. Tracks like the 48-second Out of Breath” class=”in-text”>Out of Breath, a reverb-laden swirl of falsetto creaks, and Fail Better” class=”in-text”>Fail Better, a chaotic blend of pincushion flute, digital scribbles, and throaty croaks, illustrate this approach. For music that operates at such a level, the investigation and the accidental discoveries are integral parts of the creative act.
Ka Baird and Chris Ryan Williams demonstrate that the deepest sonic energies often emerge not from perfect execution, but from the willingness to embrace the beautiful mess of the experimentation.
Buy on Amazon
Credit
