Bryce Dessner, Australian String Quartet & Sydney Dance Company - Impermanence/Disintegration (2021)

Impermanence/Disintegration places Grammy Award winning composer Bryce Dessner in partnership with the Australian String Quartet and Sydney Dance Company in constructing a dynamic, profoundly moving emotional response to the fleeting transience of life. Heavily influenced by the searing impact of the wildfires that devastated Australia late in 2019, Impermanence reflects on the mutability of the structures around us, both tangible and intangible.

The eponymous dance piece, featuring live on-stage performance of Dessner’s score, was originally planned to premiere in Sydney in March 2020. As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic became apparent, the performances were cancelled, and artists sent into lockdown. Life, and recovery, was on hold but the collaboration persevered.

The ASQ recorded the compositions in lockdown, the dancers rehearsed in isolation, and with the added poignancy of a pandemic that has exposed so many vulnerabilities and changed us all at a profound level, Impermanence will finally take to the stage. Premiering on 17 February for a two week season in Sydney, Impermanence will be presented at the Adelaide Festival in March and then on an extensive Australian national tour.

37d03d is proud to partner with these artists to release the full-length album of Dessner’s works as performed by the Quartet. A collaboration with Anohni sees a new version of her timeless, and resonant, “Another World.” It closes the show, and the album, with great levity and hope.

Rafael Bonachela, Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company said “It has been a real treat to conceive of this work together with Bryce Dessner and the Australian String Quartet – to explore the emotional drivers through both dance and music and to arrive at a place where the parts knit together so closely to make the whole. And ironically, to be able to shape Impermanence in response to such unexpected, but life-changing global events. For me, this encapsulates the incredible power of contemporary dance and music and how the response of the artist can truly resonate.”

Australian String Quartet
Dale Barltrop – Violin I
Francesca Hiew – Violin II
Stephen King – Viola
Rachael Tobin – Cello (guest)

David Chalmin - electronics, mixing
Composed and arranged by Bryce Dessner except "Another World (String Arrangement)" by Anohni with string arrangement by Bryce Dessner.