Famed The National member Bryce Dessner has announced a new classical album called Impermanence/Disintegration, which will be released on Friday, April 2, in remembrance of the Australian wildfires. The album was made in collaboration with the Australian String Quartet and Sydney Dance Company, and will include new composition tracks “Emergency” and “Impermanence.”

In addition to the track “Emergency,” the announcement comes with a video of the Sydney Dance Company interpreting Dressner’s cello arrangement “Impermanence.” The choreographed dance depicts two shirtless dancers performing intertwined dance moves and slow, sensual movements as the bottom half of their bodies are edited out of the screen amidst a gray background. The clip brings an artistic expression with sharp audio visual execution as tensions of the music and performance increase throughout. Discussing the new project, Dressner says “I was thinking about how fragile everything is, about how things that you think are structurally sound or permanent actually aren’t.”

According to a press release, “‘Impermanence'” will mark one of the first live-audience performances since lockdown, and run now through February 27 in Sydney, followed by the Adelaide Festival in March and an extensive Australian national tour. ” At each performance, audiences will be following socially-distanced safety protocols, and the dancers have been rehearsing in isolation.  The dance piece was initially planned to premiere in Sydney back in March 2020. More information can be found online.

Discussing the touring performance, Rafael Bonachela, Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company, says the fusion of music and dance is always exciting. “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,” explains Bonachela. “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.”