NICK BATTERHAM HAS RELEASED SECOND SINGLE AND VIDEO FROM HIS NEW CLASSICAL ALBUM FIRST SNOW (MUSIC FOR PIANO AND STRINGS)
FOLLOWING HIS WORK WITH VISUAL ARTIST RONE, THE NEW ALBUM FROM THE MELBOURNE INDIE-ROCK MAINSTAY (EARTHMEN, CORDRAZINE, BLINDSIDE) COMPRISES NEW INSTRUMENTAL COMPOSITIONS.
ALBUM OUT OCTOBER 17, AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW. CONCERT PREMIERE AT TEMPO RUBATO IN BRUNSWICK NOVEMBER 10, ON SALE NOW
Naarm/Melbourne ARIA Award nominated musician and AFI/AACTA award nominated sound designer Nick Batterham has today released “Spectrogram, I: Undulations”, the second single from his new album of instrumental compositions, First Snow (music for piano and strings). It is available on all streaming platforms and Bandcamp.
First Snow (music for piano and strings) follows on thematically from the artist’s recent soundtracks for installations by the visual artist Rone. The album will be released October 17 and works from it will be premiered alongside much-loved pieces from Batterham’s soundtracks for Rone installations at Tempo Rubato in Brunswick, Monday 10th November, 2025.
“Undulations” is the first movement of a piano quartet called “Spectrogram”, which lies at the heart of First Snow (music for piano and strings). Each movement describes a type of pattern found in nature. Always on its way up or down, “Undulations” is a series of peaks and troughs, in both pitch and dynamics. The musicians on this track are Zoë Black(violin), Christopher Moore (viola), Michelle Wood (cello) with Batterham on piano.
The artwork for “Undulations” is a detail from Drez’s painting ‘Red Hum’.
The beautiful video clip – a dance of light and dark in a study of concentration and movement – was filmed and edited by Thuy Vy and featuring basketballer Alyssa Rodriguez. Thuy and Batterham have been working together for many years and share a love of observational, meditative, and gentle film-making.
Thuy says: “Nick’s music is so layered and textured, it’s a pleasure to respond to it visually. The purity of emotions in a focused everyday scenario is what echoed with me from listening to ‘Undulations’. The flow of the body in time, the internal thoughts, the symbolism of a mourning headband; these elements were the seed of an idea. The rest came into realisation with a sunset on a suburban basketball court.”
“Undulations” follows the release album’s first single “An Invitation” and title track “First Snow”. Backseat Mafia said of “An Invitation” (which is available on all streaming platforms and Bandcamp): “As the title suggests, there is an Antarctic freshness to the track driven by a reflective atmospheric piano underpinned by sweeping strings that emerge through the notes. The strings cannot help but convey a heartbreakingly beautiful melancholy that gives it an element of poignancy and nostalgia.”
First Snow (music for piano and strings) is the new album by Nick Batterham, the ARIA Award nominated musician and AFI/AACTA award nominated sound designer based in Naarm / Melbourne. The album comprises new instrumental compositions for piano and strings, following on thematically from the artist’s recent soundtracks for installations by the visual artist Rone. The album will be released October 17 and works from it will be premiered alongside much-loved pieces from Batterham’s soundtracks for Rone installations at Tempo Rubato in Brunswick, Monday 10th November, 2025.
The title First Snow conjures sparse landscapes and a sense of wonderment. Many cultures see the first snow as a time for reflection, nostalgia, and reconnection – the slate being wiped clean for new beginnings – and the music on First Snow is equal parts sombre, beautiful, and uplifting. The album is centred around a piano quartet, with Batterham on piano, renown and sought-after soloist, admired for her highly expressive playing, Zoë Black on violin as well as principal viola with the MSO,Christopher Mooreand Michelle Wood, also MSO, on cello. Some pieces have extra instrumentation with contributions by David Berlin (cello), Tamara Murphy (bass), Daniel Farrugia (drums), Rhys Boak (piano), Carlo Barbaro (saxophones, clarinet) and Daniel Beasy (trumpet, flugelhorn).
The concert at Tempo Rubato will feature a quartet comprising Christopher Moore, Zoë Black as well as Josephine Vains and Georgina Lewis performing Batterham‘s compositions.
Perhaps best known as guitarist and co-songwriter with ARIA Award nominated indie-rock band The Earthmen in the ’90s, Nick has also released a string of acclaimed solo albums, served as guitarist and producer with the band Cordrazine since 2009, and most recently, has become known for his contemporary classical soundtracks and immersive sound design for the artist Rone. Rone’s Time installation at Flinders Street Station was visited by over 100,000 people and was later installed for six months at the Art Gallery of Western Australia; Nick’s soundtrack for Rone’sTime (2022-23) installation at Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station has sold over 3000 copies, and he also collaborated on Rone’s previous projects, Rone In Geelong (2021) and Empire (2019).
Nick started working with the artist Rone in 2018 creating immersive sound design for his installations and writing music for piano and strings for the first time.
“I’m very grateful to (Rone) for setting me on this path,” he says. “Having my music embedded in the visual worlds he creates, allowed the emotions of my music to connect with audiences in a way that I’d never experienced before. The sadness, the melancholy, are elevated to being beautiful and comforting. Certainly, Rone’s popularity has exposed my music to a much wider audience”
A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts school of film and television, Nick has provided musical score to numerous films and commercials, and sound design for feature films including Bromley: Light After Dark (2023), The Plains (2022), All This Mayhem (2014) and Lionel (2009), which was nominated for an AFI award for best sound in a documentary. He has won Best Sound in a Documentary at the Australian Screen Sound Guild Awards and has won Best Sound at Flickerfest twice. He is also a Dendy Award-nominated writer-director.
In the indie-rock world, Nick – who studied cello before picking up a guitar – has shared stages with Alanis Morrissette and INXS in The Earthmen and Smashing Pumpkinsand The Breeders in his first band Blindside. He has released seven albums as a solo singer-songwriter. He launched Lovebirds (2021, Cheersquad Records) with a live performance at Melbourne Recital Centre’s Primrose Potter Salon, and The Sentimentalist (2024, Cheersquad Records) with a full band performance at Northcote Social Club.
Nick says of his new album: “I started with the pure intention to make an album of piano quartets, but some pieces called for more (or less) instrumentation. I’ve always followed my ear, trusting it to lead me to the right notes, the right emotions. I’ve learned over time to let each composition become its own thing, unfolding, revealing itself to me in its own time. Perhaps for this reason I’m so attracted to melody as a vehicle for emotion.
“On First Snow, I’ve followed my ear into new sounds and tonal combinations, letting my fresh fascination with synthesizers permeate the album in places. Used sparingly, they create a warm and sparse landscape for the often-solitary strings to float above.
“Everything was recorded and mixed at my studio in Pascoe Vale South over three years.
“Looking back at this journey, I can see my own through line is the communication of emotion – expressing mine and helping others communicate theirs. This album is my first instrumental record of my own. Continuing from what I’ve gleaned from writing soundtracks, the pieces are slow and cinematic, meditative, and emotional, and open to interpretation. I hope you enjoy them.”
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