Métier Records signs top violist Nathan Sherman for his solo debut album

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on
 16 October, 2024
Nathan Sherman © Ruth Medjber

Nathan Sherman‘s debut solo record, The Gentle Erasure of Time, to be released 21 February 2025 on the Métier label, is a collection of new commissions for solo viola and electronics. The record is a vivid tapestry of sound, a flow between the ghostly and mesmeric, to the intense and cinematic. The works by Nicole Lizée, Karin Rehnqvist, Jonathan Nangle, Linda Buckley, Benjamin Broening and Sam Perkin reflect on perspectives of motion, memory and beauty. Each work is a unique world of sound, focusing on the vibrant dialogue between the acoustic instrument and the electronic element. 

Opening with the almost dangerous “Erasure of Time” by Jonathan Nangle, the album develops through moods and soundscapes with an incredible blend of foley effects and electronic synthesis over which the solo viola is brilliantly played as the main actor within the drama. Closing with Linda Buckley’s beautiful “The Thin Veil”, The Gentle Erasure of Time has to be one of the most successful contemporary recordings for solo viola in the way it blends modern electronic sounds with the acoustic instrument, demonstrating how effective these features and effects can be in the classical genre.  This is an accomplished and exciting performance by Nathan Sherman, recorded with great technical skill and certainly an album to be enjoyed at great volume.    Every work on this album is receiving its premiere recording.

American-born violist Nathan Sherman has been based in Dublin since 1999 and enjoys a career collaborating with other adventurous musicians. His curiosity and eclecticism allows him to present work ranging from Schütz and Purcell, to experimenting with heavy metal and aquariums. Nathan is a tireless commissioner and his commanding performances have brought him around the world. As founding member and Artistic Director of the acclaimed chamber group Ficino Ensemble, Nathan performs a vast amount of music and has released two albums. Nathan regularly plays with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Evlana and in duo with percussionist Alex Petcu. He is co-artistic director of the newly formed contemporary music group Stone Drawn Circles and a member of the experimental metal duo By a Sky.

Album Details

  • Title:  The Gentle Erasure of Time
  • Label: Métier
  • Catalogue number: MEX 77136
  • Performer: Nathan Sherman (viola) with electronics
  • Works:
    • The Gentle Erasure of Time (Jonathan Nangle)
    • Turntaasm (Nicole Lizée)
    • I Thought the Sea would Sing to Me (Karin Rehnquist)
    • More Beautiful than it Has to Be (Sam Perkin)
    • Memory Shifts (Benjamin Broening)
    • The Thin Veil (Linda Buckley)
  • Recorded at Hellfire Studios, Dublin in April & May, 2024
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Don't miss both of our new Métier new releases on Deezer's New Classical Picks Playlist! ▶️ Listen now in our bio link. Today, Métier presents a “monumental” (The Wire) 4-disc box set from pianist Ian Pace in commanding performances of music by composer Michael Finnissy (b. 1946). On all platforms today at listn.fm/finnissypiano Métier Records is thrilled to release “Because They Have Songs” from composer Edward Cowie and featuring Gerard McChrystal and Richard Shaw! Out now on all platforms ▶️ listn.fm/becausetheyhavesongs “This monumental piano release features Michael Finnissy’s Verdi Transcriptions plus English Country-Tunes, and other compositions inspired by 19th century music. Soloist Ian Pace is a leading interpreter of Finnissy’s work, and has played his complete output for piano. Finnissy’s output is prolific, political and complex – he’s a leading late modernist.… luxuriant but challenging textures of the school often called new complexity.” —Andy Hamilton, The Wire Marvelous new MusicWeb International review for Edward Cowie: Because They Have Songs, before its release this Friday! “Buller is a composer who knows how to imbue feelings with ample warmth, colour and tension that keep the ear immersed in his sonic worlds. The musical language is largely tonal, with some roots in sacred choral traditions, yet with sufficient harmonic pungency to provide underpinnings of meaning to Leah Lax’s empathetic, urgent texts in the two extended works.… Conspirare, led by founding Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson, respond to all of Buller’s emotional gestures with utmost cohesion and flexibility, and the soloists – basses Michael Hawes and Simon Barrad and soprano Emily Yocum Black – are first-rate.” —Donald Rosenberg, @gramophonemagazine “This performance will stay with me for a long time; it is both exquisitely beautiful and inherently melancholic.” —Edward Breen, Gramophone on Haitham Haidar's #Zaytoun Don't miss Ryan de Ryke and Daniel Schlosberg's recording of “Looking to Euridice” from Doug Lofstrom's song cycle, “Myths and Accidents” in @Deezer's top Classical New Release picks playlist! [in bio] Available today from the Diversions label — Myths and Accidents: Vocal Music of Doug Lofstrom! 🎶➡️ listn.fm/mythsandaccidents “I first met Ryan De Ryke and Daniel Schlosberg in 2014 when they appeared in my composition class at Columbia College Chicago. … I contacted them later and suggested we might record some of my songs. The first batch we tried was Three Sandburg Songs, which I had just finished.” —Doug Lofstrom