Acclaimed Toronto-based composer Nick Storring today announces his ninth full-length recording Mirante, and releases the first track taken from it, Roxa I, a lush mass of percolating melodic and percussive figures. 

Mirante, which will be released on March 21st 2025 on We Are Busy Bodies, 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.

First single 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.

Written by