Nick Storring - Mirante
Nick Storring
We Are Busy Bodies (nickstorring.bandcamp.com/album/mirante)
Composer and cellist/multi-instrumentalist Nick Storring has numerous recordings to his credit, but his latest solo album Mirante (Lookout in Portuguese) has a beauty and complexity that is transfixing. Storring’s compositional skills are matched only by his imagination; the fine balance of nature, acoustic instruments and multi-tracking is a specialty of Storring’s, but this luscious, pulsing album brings in a more personal tone with field recordings from his second home of Brazil.
Track one, Roxa, is dreamy and enticing; you are being hypnotized to follow the sweet ocarina calls, the percussion, the handclaps… (are they handclaps?). Just give in, and you’ll be smoothly led to track two, Roxa ll. The xylophone, drums, flute, chimes…. There is no fighting the call.
Track three Mirante’s gentle swaying of the breeze, the birds and kites over the water… unknowingly you will be transformed, brought gently into town with vocals, drum beats, cowbells. You’ll find yourself dancing through narrow stone passageways, and along the beach and back. Children play, water washes over you… will you swim, sleep, or take a walk? Here, the ocarina will sing to you, the flute, the drum, the whistle will call. Roxa lll is the most melancholy of the tracks; rich, textured, filled with heavens and skies, teaching you to be patient. It will be worth it.
The whole album organically draws you in further and further until you find yourself surrounded by people… walking, pausing, walking, swimming, dancing, Storring gently takes you by the hand into a world of music and wonder that is almost indescribable, and before you know it, you’ve passed through the whole travelogue and are pressing repeat. This album is even better savoured with headphones to appreciate the expert mastering and Storring’s delicate layering.
I had to look up a few of the nearly 50 instruments in use on the album. The amount of listening and editing involved in such a solo project would be overwhelming for most, but Storring is right at home.
(At one point I was searching the list of instruments for the perfectly timed kettle whistle I was hearing, until I realized it was my own.)
