~ Courtesy of Riparian Media
Acclaimed Toronto-based composer Nick Storring is set to announce his 9th full-length recording Mirante, due out March 21st, 2025 on We Are Busy Bodies.
Mirante can be regarded as an homage to Brazil, albeit an oblique one, especially given that two of the tracks were composed well before Storring even visited the country for the first time. Storring’s output is decidedly abstract in its general orientation, and this sensibility extends to his evocation of style, and as a result the album does not intentionally strive to sound like any particular Brazilian music, even if some audible influences and elements float to the surface. Instead, the music endeavours to convey broader impressions of the country—its beauty and its contrasts, the sounds of its urban and natural environments. And of course, music is a considerable part of Brazil’s identity.
Mirante is easily Storring’s most rhythmic record to date. Percussion plays a major role throughout, and at times is one of the key features that connects these pieces to the Brazilian canon. Yet even the more ambient sections carry an underlying sense of pulse, making the transitions between the album’s various sonic environments supple and fluid.
‘Roxa I’makes extensive use of this flow between implicit and explicit rhythmic activity. The interplay of warm, elusive swells at its outset establishes a sense of space, but gradually gives way to a lush mass of percolating melodic and percussive figures. The piece climbs to its peak over a thunderous chorus of drums.
Meanwhile, the gnarlier’Terra da Garoa’feels like loping junkyard funk. Its title translates literally to “Land of Drizzle” but it’s a well-known nickname for São Paulo, whose distinctive mix of chaos and vitality is channeled in this track. Its groove weaves clanging percussion through wonky quasi-melodies played on prepared mandola, mandocello and bass. Storring takes this foundation and punctuates it with everything from slobbery beatboxing to the cackling of a bamboo saxophone.
Storring continues his exploration of layered acoustic and amplified instrumentation, unlocking strange sonorities through unusual combinations and techniques, all the while using very little electronic processing. Some passages feel like they’re executed by bands or ensembles of various sizes and types, whereas the surreal quality of other parts might suggest intertwining synths, in spite of their absence. As with his previous output, Storring plays all of the instruments himself and here his collection has grown to include Brazilian instruments such as cavaquinho, cuíca, reco-reco, pandeiro, a triangle and bamboo flute gifted to him by friends of his in-laws, and even a set of 24 wooden bird calls that he purchased there.
It is also Storring’s first release since his 2011 debut, Rife (Entr’acte) to incorporate field recordings. All of these were collected in Brazil using everything from a built-in phone mic to specialized devices like contact condenser microphones and hydrophones. Similarly, this his first LP to feature his own photographs as part of the design, and these images were captured in Brazil as well.The album and its constituent pieces are all titled in Portuguese; Storring has been learning the language to communicate with his in-laws (who live there) and his partner’s Brazilian friends.
Mirante means “lookout” and is often used to designate tourist overlooks in Brazil. He chose that title for several reasons. In the case of the composition with this name, it matches the piece’s panoramic quality; how it sweeps through several different landscapes in the way that one might pan horizontally across a scenic vista. In the case of the album, using this title was a way to acknowledge his outsider position in relation to Brazilian culture. Even as he has become more immersed in the country, gaining an understanding of its complexities and some intimacy with mundane Brazilian life, he still feels like an observer there—one who has experienced it in an overwhelmingly positive light. As such, he is still looking at it from a sort of ‘mirante’ perspective.
Here is a link to the album: https://nickstorring.bandcamp.com/album/mirante
About Nick Storring
Nick has worked with a number of leading artists and organizations in contemporary music including Montréal’s AKOUSMA Festival, Oxford UK’s Audiograft Festival, Késia Decoté, Joseph Petric, the Penderecki Quartet, Boyd McDonald, the Esprit Orchestra, Arraymusic, Soundstreams, Eve Egoyan, Sophia Subbayya Vastek, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Quatuor Bozzini, and Vancouver New Music.
Winner of the Canadian Music Centre’s 2011 Toronto Emerging Composer Award, he also placed first in the 2008 Jeux De Temps competition for electroacoustic composition. His recorded output has also been released on celebrated experimental music imprints such as Orange Milk Records, mappa editions, Scissor Tail, Notice Recordings and Entr’acte.
Mirante album credits:
Nick Storring — Fender Rhodes, Hohner Pianet-T, Hohner Clavinet D6, Yamaha CP60M Stage Piano, electric mandola, electric mandocello, acoustic cello, electric cello, electric bass, cavaquinho, Harpsicle, glockenspiel, toy piano, thumb pianos, handbells, bar chimes, Orff Xylophone, ornamental gamelan instrument, toy balafon, tongue drums, harmonicas, melodicas, Suzuki Andes 25-F, ocarina, clarinet, bawu, hulusi, bamboo saxophone, xaphoon, assorted flutes, slide whistles, whirly tubes, bird calls, Acme siren whistle, dog whistle, voice, cuíca, khamak, Boomwhackers, drums and percussion, singing bowl, hand claps, streetsweeper bristles, spring reverb, talkbox, transducer speakers.
Contains field recordings captured in São Paulo, Guarujá, and Curitiba, Brazil
Composed, performed, recorded, produced and mixed by Nick Storring, (2020-2023)
All tracks ©, SOCAN
