Album Description
Composer, vocal innovator, choreographer, dancer and multimedia artist Meredith Monk's latest piece - for her Vocal Ensemble plus three instrumentalists - was inspired by workshops with terminally-ill patients and looks at "the different facets of impermanence and the joy and wonder of being".
Impermanence is Meredith Monk's first ECM recording since 'mercy' in 2002. Embodying a broad spectrum of emotions, the phenomenal American artist and her dynamic Vocal Ensemble take the audience on a poetic journey to a place where music, dance and video portraits reflect the delicacy and power of the human spirit. Each section provides a non-narrative look at "the different facets of impermanence and the joy and wonder of being". Accompanied by voice, piano, clarinet, breath, marimba, vibraphone, bicycle tyre and other inventive percussive instruments, the many scenes create a collage of emotion, image, and sound that gently transports the audience through a haunting, mysterious, and essentially human experience. 'Impermanence' was recorded at Avatar Studios in New York in January last year but it was premiered at the Riverside Studios in London in July 2004 as part of the first festival mounted by Rosetta Life, an organisation which sends professional artists into hospices to work with people who have life-threatening illnesses. Monk had been invited to lead some workshops in London - "a deeply moving experience" - and the work was inspired by the patients she encountered and also by the death in 2002 of her long term partner, Dutch choreographer and dance teacher Mieke van Hoek.
American composer, vocal innovator, choreographer, dancer, multimedia artist, Meredith Monk has defined the very concept of interdisciplinary performance art in the course of her long, illustrious career. She's been associated with ECM since 1980 and 'Impermanence' is her ninth recording for the label.
Personnel:
Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble: Theo Bleckmann, Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, Ching Gonzalez, Meredith Monk, Allison Sniffin, Sasha Bogdanowitsch, Silvie Jensen (voices), Allison Sniffin (piano, violin), John Hollenbeck (percussion), Bohdan Hilash (woodwinds)