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  • Streaming + Download

    Pre-order of Enthalpy. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    Purchasable with gift card
    Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
    releases September 25, 2026

      $9 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    LP in standard-weight jacket on black vinyl pressed at 45rpm for maximum fidelity
    Limited edition of 300 copies
    Mastered by Stephan Mathieu & designed by Sam Wenc

    Includes digital pre-order of Enthalpy. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
    shipping out on or around September 25, 2026
    edition of 300 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $24 USD or more 

     

1.
Spirit
2.
Target Practice 04:38
buy track
3.
Vapour Trails
4.
Shapeshifting
5.
Visible Ghosts
6.
Fail Better
7.
Enthalpy
8.
Out of Breath
9.
Spirit II

about

Pressure is the medium of wind players. Wind instruments all sound thanks to pressure differentials, whether that’s the rush of wind over a lip plate or a steady, buzzing exhalation through pursed lips. Ka Baird and Chris Ryan Williams are well-schooled in the power of using pressure and movement to amplify the mystery of an invisible force animating a metal tube. They augment their instruments, flute and trumpet respectively, with electronics, sometimes obscuring the acoustic sound source, sometimes making it hyperreal. Flutters of lip and tongue slither over the listener’s ear, and sustained tones become a dense fog, pushing on other kinds of visceral, emotional pressure points.

On Enthalpy, Baird and Williams’ first album as a duo, the energy they conjure feels barely contained, the pressure built up to a breaking point before spilling out in multiple directions at various speeds. They borrow the title from thermodynamics, referring to the total energy of a system based on its pressure and volume. The music flies out in bursts; it seeps and oozes, flows with intention. It is an incredibly rhythmic work without any hint of meter, full of sounds that punctuate with the thud of a dart hitting a bullseye. Williams’ capability to conjure swirling atmospherics, as well as his remarkable ability to pull fragments of melody from the haze, fit puzzle-like into Baird’s exclamations and the eruption of electronics that often dovetail them. The duo draws on tones from nearly the entire range of human hearing, from nimble but bulbous throbs of sub-bass to pinprick flickers of ultra-high end.

The sessions that produced Enthalpy were completely improvised, showcasing a degree of mind-meld that belies each participant’s thrill at approaching the unknown. This isn’t a casual conversation, but an omnidirectional tangle that ties and reties itself into new knots as the album progresses. Williams and Baird have both become ubiquitous presences throughout the New York City experimental music communities, collaborating with innumerable others and learning how their unique approaches work in tandem with similarly expansive thinkers and players. Even in the album’s most spacious moments, there’s a tension between the feeling of being unmoored and yet completely locked in, like the abyss is just one more river to cross. They ford it together before moving on to the next idea in lock step.

For the listener, Enthalpy is often felt in the body as much as it reverberates within the ears. We’re tossed from side to side, made to shoulder the impact of detonating electronics, absorbing these sounds with the feet, gut, and crown. Baird reaches into the back of their throat for guttural growls, and we can almost feel the scratch. As we tread the border of the synthesthetic, it's a reminder of the physical nature of sound, that the space between our ears and the speakers is its own enthalpic system of energy conduction. Move with it, let it move you, and see how it feels.

credits

releases September 25, 2026

Chris Ryan Williams: trumpet & electronics
Ka Baird: bass flute, vocals, electronics, editing

Engineered by Chris Ryan Williams and Ka Baird
Mixed by Ka Baird
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu
Recorded at Eagles Nest & Harvestworks
Cover and sleeve photos by Brian Brennan
Design by Sam Wenc

Released by Outside Time, Washington, DC | 2026
outsidetime.bandcamp.com

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about

Ka Baird image

Ka Baird Brooklyn, New York

Ka Baird is a musician, performer, composer and sound designer based in New York City. They are known for their live performances which include extended voice and microphone techniques combined with electronics and electroacoustic interplay of flutes and other woodwinds. ... more

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