My first studio album and newest composition, Noche Oscura, will be released on October 27, 2023. The album will be available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music & iTunes, YouTube & YouTube Music. It will be available to download on Bandcamp and here on brienhenderson.net for FREE.
Noche Oscura is a cantata in seven movements for solo voice accompanied by 12 virtual voices. I sang all 13 parts myself and recorded the entire album in a home studio. The text features several sources and two languages, Spanish and Latin, but revolves around the poem Noche Oscura (Dark Night) by 16th-century Spanish mystic Saint John of the Cross (1542 - 1591).
The single from the album, the second movement entitled En una noche oscura, is now available to stream through any of the channels listed above except Bandcamp. You can also pre-order a high quality download of the album now. The download includes a digital book containing the full text alongside English translations, plus some additional background on the text sources provided (sample below).
Listen in a new window: En una noche oscura
All the previous recordings of my work, such as those you can hear on the LISTEN page, were captured live in concert with only one “take.” That rarely yields the best representation of the music. Not only that, but the rights to commercially distribute those recordings were not permitted. So, it has been challenging to capture, and impossible to distribute, the best possible performances of my work.
Noche Oscura is my first attempt to get out of this predicament. Having a lot of time at my disposal and almost no budget, I wrote something that I could perform entirely by myself: just me singing a solo part, my laptop to play back the pre-recorded accompanying voices (that's why I call them “virtual voices”), and a sound system.
Still, it is a highly ambitious work. It clocks in at 30 minutes; recording it required me to sing in three different vocal ranges; and any one voice part will often sing at a different tempo than other parts. It was a grueling and time-intensive process, especially because I overestimated my singing abilities when composing it. A well-practiced professional, which I am not, would probably find it to be a demanding process. Thankfully, I had the help of my good friend Tyler Smith to mix and master the final tracks. The production quality of the album is entirely thanks to his expertise and efforts.
I am humbled and grateful to have had the opportunity to create this album and share it with the world.
Dona nobis pacem