#aheym

Media Review (★★★★): Bryce Dessner, Album "Tenebre" — Ensemble Resonanz, Hamburg. Contents: Aheym (2009), Tenebre (2010), Skrik Trio (2017), Lachrymae (2012)

Bryce Dessner - "Rolling Stones" magazine interview, Oct.1st, 2013

Gavin Edwards : Sufjan Stevens contributes vocals on "Tenebre"-- how'd that happen?

Bryce Dessner : There's eight voices of Sufjan on there. I played in his band in 2005, and more recently, we worked on a song cycle called Planetarium. He's played on the last three National records. He's one of my closest friends and a neighbor. That piece, "Tenebre," is based on Renaissance vocal music. The piece was commissioned for Kronos's lighting designer, so I was thinking about light and music, and Tenebre is a Holy Week service, the day before Good Friday, also called Maundy Thursday. It's all about light: they extinguish candles during the Mass, symbolizing the life and death of Christ. Because the piece is based on vocal music, I wanted it to have voices at the end. But I wanted to do it in a nonclassical way, and Sufjan has this light airiness in his voice that I thought would be beautiful. And he's game for this kind of thing.

Kronos Quartet performing Bryce Dessner's Aheym