The short-lived band Arcadium was formed in London in 1969 and consisted of band leader, songwriter, guitarist and singer Miguel Sergides, Robert Ellwood (g, voc), Allan Ellwood (org, voc), Graham Best (b, voc) and John Albert Parker (dr). After several successful club performances, they were signed by the small British label Middle Earth Records. Their album Breath Awhile, produced and released there in 1969, is now considered a milestone of late 1960s British psychedelic rock with early prog and hard rock influences. Their first and only LP is dominated by a gloomy, cathedral-like organ, distorted guitar and painful vocals, which lend the sound an apocalyptic atmosphere. Despite the intensity of the music, the tortured vocals and the heavy, nightmarish sounds that perfectly captured the mood of the late 1960s, the LP sank without a trace.

The album released at the same time in France on the small Pop Music label, distributed by Disques Vogue, also went completely unnoticed. Disappointed, the band broke up later that same year. Thanks to the higher vinyl quality in contrast to the well-known inferior quality of Middle Earth releases, this incredibly rare French pressing is also sought after by collectors worldwide.