On a late October night in 2023, in a music room on the second floor of a church rectory, a Vivaldi poster looked on as Fr. Alexander Herasimtschuk recorded one last vocal take. He let his posture go, hung his head and sang almost in a whisper. Three years later, that fragile take is the beating heart of “Down in the Valley,” the haunting new single from New York world rock fusion group Novus Cantus, out now.
Alex, an Episcopal priest, founded Novus Cantus in 2010 with his brother Christian. The new song is their darkest and most personal yet, a hypnotic journey through depression and spiritual longing built on classical guitar, Middle Eastern percussion and that unforgettable voice.
“I knew this would be my last take of the night. I leaned forward, closed my eyes, then did something a little different… I let go,” Alex says. “I didn’t maintain posture or think about form or my breathing. Instead, I took on a crooked, semi-hunched frame; hung my head like a mournful, hopeless man, and poured my soul into the microphone.”
“It was quiet… exhausted, yet strong enough to capture. My mouth barely opened. It was unimpeded, and raw. In my mind was the personification of depression: a face of exhaustion, numbness, hopelessness.”
The melody had come to him weeks earlier, on a beach of all places. Finding the right way to sing it took much longer.
“I had been ruminating about how to approach a song that brought me to a very raw, emotional place. It couldn’t be polished, but still had to be ‘me,’ and the vocals were the spark that brought Valley to life,” he says. “But we wouldn’t realize that until years later.”
Like many great songs, this one took patience.
“‘Down in the Valley’ was a long-haul composition, a grind. We’ve all been there as musicians; the song we know could be great but needs the right approach. Chris Isaak famously took 7 years to figure out how to sing his major hit, ‘Wicked Game,’” Alex says. “At first, they were so quiet they seemed like ‘throw away’ vocals; other vocal takes seemed ‘stronger’, more emotional, causing a lot of debate over approach. But the song always came back to that October take.”
The lyrics draw on both his own struggles and his faith. “Down by the river, again / Weeping and gnashing, again,” he sings, before echoing the Psalms: “Sitting here waiting, lifting my eyes to the hills.”
“It is my harnessing of a very dark personal place, the ‘Valley’. I had been there before, many times. Depressed, numb,” he says. “But as a priest nothing is purely emotional for me; spiritually, it also brought visions of the exodus, the Holy Land. Other forms of spiritual suffering.”
The final piece arrived as a happy accident from his brother.
“By complete coincidence, Christian sent me this take, a total experiment – a drum part using two doumbeks and a shaker. So simple, and a perfect blending of the song’s inspirations,” Alex says. “It brought in a Middle Eastern flair, a timeless ‘beat’, and an allusion to the spiritual symbolism inspiring the lyrics.”
The band produced the single themselves and mixed it with BlueSky Studios in Delmar, New York, before Le Lab in Montreal mastered it. For the artwork, longtime friend and photographer Jim MacBrien shot the brothers in dramatic chiaroscuro style, using single-source lighting and an incredibly gothic chair. The music video was a true do-it-yourself labour of love.
“We rented a camera from Christian’s local public library in Bethlehem, New York, a GoPro12, borrowed a friend’s Canon Rebel, cobbled together some outfits, ideas for shots, and went to work,” Alex says. “The creative energy of the video was incredible! reviewing the footage, we knew we had something so special. No idea was left on the cutting room floor, and it was ready to upload within a week of shooting.”
Originally from Poughkeepsie and now split between Wappingers Falls and Albany, the Ukrainian American brothers blend rock, flamenco and Middle Eastern styles. Alex plays classical guitar, tiple, charango, Iraqi oud and ukulele, and Christian covers Latin and African drums, pan flute and bass, with both singing. They’ve also built a reputation for bold reinventions of songs by Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, Nirvana and Rusted Root. Novus Cantus has been nominated twice for World Music Artist of the Year at the Thomas Edison Awards and has been featured on WMHT’s AHA! A House for Arts and WEXT Radio’s Local 518 Sessions. They’ve played venues across New York State, including Shrine World Music Venue and Silvana in New York City, The Linda in Albany, Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, Norma’s Cafe and the University at Albany.
It took three years for a whispered take from a quiet October night to find its way into the world. This October, Novus Cantus finally lets it ring.
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