Catherine Brookman: If A Song Fades Out

Full Album out on November 7, 2025

Praise for Catherine Brookman:

“Vocally complex, rich and consistently surprising…sonic glow as entrancing as a phosphorescent sea." — The New York Times

“Vocal dynamo Catherine Brookman (with) mighty lung power translated via loop machine…with lyrics that linger” — NYMag

“Brookman's tidal compositions carry us away.” — Timeout

On September 17, 2025, Catherine Brookman, the Brooklyn-based performer and composer announces her debut album If A Song Fades Out, It’s Playing Forever Somewhere a co-release from Another Portal and Long Echo Records.

Across ten tracks, If A Song Fades Out, It’s Playing Forever Somewhere finds Catherine Brookman exploring emotional collapse, heartbreak, loneliness, and the slippery nature of time through non-linear storytelling, visually evocative lyrics, and intricate songcraft. Made in collaboration with producer Chris Botta, the record brings together an all-star ensemble of genre-defying musicians—including Attacca Quartet’s Nathan Schram, Shahzad Ismaily, Tigue’s Matt Evans & Amy Garapic, Julia Adamy, Elijah Fox, Alex Babbitt, Elliot Cole, Aaron Roche, Joseph White, Meredith Monk Ensemble’s Gideon Crevoshay, Jacqui Cornetta, and Nathan Repasz — whose contributions shape a rich and expansive sonic landscape that amplifies Brookman's singular voice.

By mixing vocals with electronics, synthesizers, and poetry, Brookman’s music seeks to uncover the majestic inside of the mundane. The album meditates on time passing, collapsing, and looping back on itself—on unfinished business, depression, and the ways pain can unexpectedly transmute into beauty. Written while walking alone through mountains, canyons, and forests, Brookman found nature to be not just a backdrop but a portal: “The river became a mirror,” she says.

Echoing the emotional heart of the record, producer Chris Botta reflects: “This record is about heartbreak and the transformative power of nature. Nature as a portal, as a longing, as an escape, as a reflection and an expansion.” At its core, If A Song Fades Out makes a case for admitting how much we need each other—for unapologetic vulnerability. It was made to make us feel less alone.

Throughout, Brookman gestures toward nature itself—the quiet ground beneath our feet and the vast sky above—as the ultimate frame for our lives, holding both our weight and our lightness, and reminding us that every step forward is part of a larger rhythm of being.

“I took a train to Montreal on March 12th of 2020 right when the Pandemic started. I packed a bag that was meant to last three days in the Montreal winter; I had turtlenecks, sweaters, and wool socks. That bag carried me through the following year and a half away from home. I went directly from Montreal to Los Angeles where I went through a break up, rented a car, drove to Utah, lived in an airstream on my friend’s family’s farm for a week, rented a truck, drove to Colorado, and was hiking 13 miles a day. I was spending a lot of time in nature, and writing music,” says Brookman. “A lot of this record came out of this time as I was moving through heartbreak and wandering alone around the mountains in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.”

Montreal
If A Song Fades Out
Night Ride
Mourning Dove
Swimming Pool
So Lonely
The Narrows, The Falls
Shambles
O Mountain
I Woke Up In The Sky

All songs by Catherine Brookman
Produced, mixed, and mastered by Chris Botta at fer sound
Recorded at Figure 8 in Brooklyn, NY

Nathan Schram: strings, synthesizer, bass
Shahzad Ismaily: synthesizer, bass
Elliot Cole: piano, synthesizer, bass
Matt Evans: drums/percussion
Amy Garapic: drums/percussion
Elijah Fox: production, piano
Aaron Roche: trombone, guitar
Julia Adamy: bass
Gideon Crevoshay: voice
Jacqui Cornetta: harp
Alex Babbitt: additional electronic production
Nathan Repasz: SPD/percussion
Joseph White: guitar

Special thanks to Kyla-Rose Smith & Elliot Cole