First single from i breathe, ‘Locus iste’, released today

The first music from Nathan James Dearden’s debut choral album, i breathe, is released today (24 September), alongside the first look at the album’s cover artwork.

‘Locus iste’, performed by the Choir of Royal Holloway and cellist Maxim Calver, is available to stream and download from today through Signum Classics.

It offers the first glimpse of i breathe, Nathan’s debut choral album, which will be released on 6 November 2026. Bringing together fifteen tracks written across a decade, the album is performed by three choirs that have each played an important part in Nathan’s musical life: the National Youth Choir of Wales, the Choir of Royal Holloway, and Kantos Chamber Choir.

Introducing i breathe

The release of ‘Locus iste’ also marks the first public reveal of the artwork for i breathe.

The cover features MAKE LIGHT WORK #4, a photograph by South Wales photographer Jon Pountney, whose work captures the rawness and everyday life of the place Nathan grew up.

The image shows a terraced house in a Welsh valley, its net curtain caught in the breeze. There is a simplicity to the photograph, but also a profound beauty: an ordinary moment transformed simply by noticing it.

For Nathan, that has a close relationship with his own approach to making music.

“Jon is one of my favourite photographers, and I have loved this image for a long time. His visual work often seems to capture something I am trying to find in my own music. There is something so simple about this photograph: a terraced house, a window, a net curtain caught in the breeze. But there is also something incredibly beautiful about it. I think I am always looking for those moments in my music, where something everyday can suddenly feel profound.

When I saw it again while thinking about the artwork, it just felt like i breathe.”

The album itself moves between the sacred and the everyday, returning to ideas of ritual, community, home, landscape, and breath. As Nathan describes it, the music is connected by “simple moments of collective singing that pack a punch”, drawing partly on memories of the Welsh hymn singing he grew up around in the Valleys.

About ‘Locus iste’

‘Locus iste’ is the opening movement of Three Motets, commissioned by the Presteigne Festival for choir and cello.

The piece looks back to the origins of the motet, when new words and musical ideas could be layered against existing material. Rather than quoting medieval music directly, Nathan uses overlapping voices that illuminate and respond to one another, with the solo cello acting as both commentator and companion.

On the recording, Rupert Gough conducts the Choir of Royal Holloway, with Maxim Calver as cello soloist. The album recording was made at the Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great in London, with Rupert Gough and Nathan James Dearden producing.

A new film accompanying the single, created by Ben Tomlin Productions, is also released today.

A decade of choral music

i breathe is the first album devoted entirely to Nathan’s choral music and brings together work written over the past ten years.

Its story is closely connected to the people performing it. Nathan sang with the National Youth Choir of Wales as a teenager; he has worked closely with the Choir of Royal Holloway as Composer-in-Residence; and Kantos Chamber Choir completes the trio of ensembles heard across the record.

The album was recorded across three sessions over two years, in London, Carmarthen, and Manchester. It was made with support from PRS Foundation, the Hinrichsen Foundation, Royal Holloway University of London, the Centre for AudioVisual Research, the Vaughan Williams Foundation, and supporters of a public Crowdfunder campaign.

“i breathe is a decade of that living and learning. Recorded with the choirs who shaped me, and released with gratitude to every singer who taught me that music is never made alone.”

Listen to ‘Locus iste’

‘Locus iste’ is out now on Signum Classics.

It is the first of three singles leading up to i breathe. ‘stay away from the clocks’ follows on 8 October, with ‘Everything about us: Now it’s my time’ on 22 October, before the full album and title track arrive on 6 November 2026.