Terroir
For choir (SSAATTBB), piano, harpsichord & strings
(2020)

Duration: 25 minutes*
*Nine movements:Individual movements may be programmed separately.

Terroir is a work in nine movements with all texts written by the composer. The piece's title derives from the French terre — the soil in which a wine is grown — evoking the formative environments and relationships that shape identity and influence human connection. The work was conceived during personal reflection following a difficult break-up, emerging as an exploration of vulnerability, self-compassion, and growth.

Each movement inhabits a specific time of day, moving from the pale pinks and lavenders of dawn into the deep rusty oranges and indigo blues of dusk. Across its nine movements — Our, Let Go, Closeness Sighs, Tangled, Worlds, Learn To Trust, Your Skin Against Mine, Held, and Falling — the work traces an emotional and temporal arc, combining sparse textures with carefully layered vocal and instrumental lines.

Recorded 2020. Released on Bella Union, 2022, under the artist name Blue Luminaire. Falling premiered in new arrangement by Kantos & Manchester Camerata, The Stoller Hall, April 2024.

 

‘Breathes steadily in and out, aching with every exhalation.’
— Andrew Mellor

‘The album is almost intoxicating in its elegance.’
— Rhys Delany, Louder than War