Steve Nolan : Breathe

Irish composer and electronic musician Steve Nolan knows how to build mood and intrigue when it comes to his scores. He combines the dramatic heft with carefully built swells of strings and synth, while layering beautifully haunting piano over top. The result is often emotionally complex with just the right amount of dread to keep the listener at the edge of their seats. Any film scored by Nolan is immediately improved by his artistic heft.

Steve Nolan’s work with UK label Spun Out Of Control is immersed in late night vibes and a sense of intimacy, bringing the worlds of electronic music and film scores together. From albums like From Water, Ream and Intercept(a collaborative LP with Grey Frequency); to his score work in Sodium Party, Bring Out The Fear, and Advent, Steve Nolan gives his work both subtle shifts and gravitas.

His latest is called Breathe, which is a score he wrote for the documentary Swimming Through Darkness, a film directed by Liza Hughes. The film “focuses on Al Mennie, an adventurer/champion big wave surfer, who has been running a mental health campaign aimed at promoting resilience and raising awareness of depression, suicide and Intergenerational Trauma in Northern Ireland, and he does this by doing these late night long swims in the North Sea“.

Breathe works on many levels; as a companion to this great doc, but also as a late night listen with the lights low and headphones on. As a standalone listen it’s the perfect intimate listening experience; quiet moods that ebb and flow between serene and haunted. With “Opening” we’re greeted with ominous synths seemingly rising from the blackness of the North Sea itself. Part 70s suspense and 80s action. “Reach Out” hangs in hopeful tones, synth strings hanging in the air and a feeling of optimism that carries throughout the piece.

From the calm unease of “Surface” to the ominous tones of “Incident” to the dramatic piano chords of “Live Two Lives”, Steve Nolan captures the bigger than life story told in Hughes’ documentary. Nolan also makes this the kind of record you can enjoy completely on its own, ending things with the emotional and dramatic closer “As One”.

If you can locate the doc I highly recommend watching as it’s an important work about mental health. But you can enjoy Steve Nolan’s Breathe completely on its own as well. A fine, accomplished instrumental album built on emotional heft and mood-building at its finest.