Nathanael Larochette is an Ottawa-based guitarist, composer, and arts educator. A lifelong musician beginning with violin at age four, Larochette eventually fell in love with the classical guitar, deeply inspired by acoustically minded metal albums like Opeth’s Still Life, Agalloch’s The Mantle, and nature folk classics such as Ulver’s Kveldssanger and Tenhi’s Kauan.
Since founding the celebrated chamber folk trio Musk Ox, now a longstanding collaboration with renowned cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne, the project has released three full-length albums. Receiving critical acclaim with each release, their second album Woodfall (2014) appeared on The Needle Drop’s Best Canadian Albums of the Year list while Inheritance (2021) garnered album of the month accolades from Sputnik Music. After sharing the stage with American metal legends Agalloch on multiple tours, the band invited Larochette to compose and perform original acoustic interludes for their fourth album The Serpent & The Sphere (2014).
Larochette’s solo debut eventually arrived as the double album Earth and Sky (2016), a collection of intricate fingerstyle compositions (Earth) alongside a long-form ambient soundscape (Sky). His most recent release Old Growth (2023), a set of folk etudes for solo guitar, was published as a tablature book by Norway’s Raven Music Editions.
Not limiting his output to acoustic realms, Larochette co-founded the instrumental progressive rock/metal band The Night Watch, whose final release An Embarrassment of Riches (2019) landed on Sonic Perspectives Top Progressive Metal Albums of the Year list alongside Devin Townsend, Dream Theater, Soen and Tool. Following the project’s dissolution, Larochette and The Night Watch drummer Dee Mollema formed the instrumental groove trio Archivers.
Larochette has received funding from the City of Ottawa Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts and was the recipient of the 2023 Ontario Arts Foundation Artist Educator Award. He has released twelve albums and performed in thirteen countries, sharing the stage with South African classical guitar virtuoso Derek Gripper, American tech metal legend Kevin Hufnagel, experimental Dutch lutenist Josef Van Wissem, and celebrated Norwegian folk ensemble Wardruna.
