Following their Big Ears Festival collaborative performance of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize winning “Anthracite Fields” with Bang on a Can, a-cappella choir SONUS continues to bring fresh life and depth to neoclassical and classical choral music with their first album release, “SONUS Volume No. 01”.

Since its founding in 2014, SONUS has proven to create a unique listening experience, as they sing in an open semi- circle with the conductor singing with them in their midst. This allows a uniquely emotional and dynamic performance, as the separation is removed between choir and conductor. Even in their recordings, one can feel the choir breathing together, moving together through complex harmonies and emotional landscapes. This sense of connectedness and collaboration is further realized in the group having been founded and run by a team of four musicians: Christopher Anderson, Timbre Cierpke, Melissa Eick, and Tyler Evick.

Their specialization of straight-tone singing creates yet another level of musical synergy. There is no vibrato to disrupt the overtones created by pure pitches, so the full color of sound can be heard and felt, making SONUS a rich and deeply moving musical experience. “I finally understand what it means to hear colors”, said one listener at Big Ears Festival, after SONUS’ solo performance. In their review of the same concert, I Care If You Listen described that the straight tone style of SONUS “allows the voices to merge into enveloping sound.... SONUS delivers a complex density of tone.”

SONUS Volume No. 01 features works by celebrated modern composers Eric Whitacre (Alleluia) , Paul Mealor (Ubi Caritas), Paul Manz (E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come), Timbre Cierpke (The Lord’s Prayer), as well as a traditional excerpt from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (Hail, O Virgin Mother). The rich harmonies and tight tone-clusters of Whitacre and Mealor sparkle with a new brilliance in the pure sounds created by the choir. Leaning into the emotion of each piece, SONUS captures an intensity and depth that few choirs can reach. One can almost hear the singers on the verge of tears at the final “Amen” of Eric Whitacre’s sweeping masterpiece, Alleluia. The emotionally charged solos of Zachary Shockley and Timbre Cierpke in this piece are almost upstaged by the unwavering sense of awe created by the choir.

Paul Mealor’s Ubi Caritas is also a dynamic highlight of the album. Choir co-founder Tyler Evick comments, “Ubi Caritas exemplifies why the choir exists as a style of music; blending a liturgical text dating back centuries with modern sounds and chordal structures. Highlighting modern composers that are keeping this art form alive and relevant is so important.”

In keeping with this goal of focusing on modern and relevant composers, featured on the album is a new piece, The Lord’s Prayer, written for the choir by Nashville recording artist and composer, Timbre Cierpke, who is also one of the co-founders of the choir, and their Rehearsal Director. “There is something uniquely special about writing for voices you know so well,” says Cierpke. “I know exactly the colors and tones this choir can create, and I can hear the chords blooming in their voices in my mind as I write. I wanted to compose something that encompasses the balance between the sacred and the secular that SONUS lives in, singing in both churches and at art events and festivals. We try to bring an experience of art into sacred spaces, and a spiritual experience into public spaces, blending the lines between them. This piece leans into that idea. I also tried to inhabit the space between the simplicity and complexity of faith. I explored this by juxtaposing both simple and complex chord structures, with both muted and intense movement. The text lends itself to this exploration, in asking for the simple: our daily bread, and the complex: the forgiveness of ourselves and others. I think this recording of the piece really captures the beauty of balance between complexity and simplicity.”

On their recent tour performing this repertoire in NYC, SONUS gained the approval and attention of the music directors of some of the most prestigious cathedrals in the country, such as St Patrick’s Cathedral, The Church of Notre Dame, and St Bartholomew’s Cathedral. Kent Tritle, Music Director for St John the Divine Cathedral, praised SONUS for their “warmth of sound and purity of execution, and the deep emotional connection of the singers to this music.”

Being from Nashville, TN also means that SONUS is made up of musicians who are deeply connected to music of every genre, bringing those influences and experiences into the group. Members of the choir have
recorded/collaborated with incredibly diverse artists, such as Jack White (on his Grammy-winning album Lazaretto), Tom Jones, Ricky Skaggs, Evanescence, video-game soundtracks Call of Duty, Far Cry 4, movie soundtrack Heart of Man, Musical Theatre International recordings of Les Miserables (Jean Valjean), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Quasimodo), front Nashville-based bands "Sweet Home Symphony" and "Timbre", and perform in Nashville new music ensembles Chatterbird and Intersection.

SONUS Volume No. 01 is an outstanding first album for a choir that is garnering a reputation as one of the most promising and emotive choirs to break onto the new-classical scene. With collaborations in the works with
composers such as Rachel Grimes, Timbre Cierpke, and Tony Anderson, SONUS will soon be a common name in neoclassical music.