Bryce Dessner

city: Paris
country: USA, France
genre: Alternative
styles: 21St Century Classical

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on hashbrandnew.com since April 02, 2021

ABOUT THIS ARTIST

Bryce Dessner is constantly expanding his musical horizons. Whether it's as guitarist for , curator of the MusicNOW festival, producer, film scorer, or composer-in-residence, he's always involved in creating new music, drawing on diverse elements and influences, whether it's music of other cultures or styles. Much of his creative energy is sparked by collaborations with other musicians.

Dessner and his twin brother have both played music since childhood. Bryce earned both his bachelor's and master's degree in music at Yale. The brothers joined with Bryan and Scott Devendorf and Matt Berninger to form the indie rock band in New York in 1999. In 2001, just as released their first album on the label -- co-founded by the Dessner brothers and Alec Hanley Bemis -- Bryce joined some of his Yale classmates, including , to form , an ensemble collaboratively creating primarily acoustic instrumental music. Dessner founded the Cincinnati-based MusicNOW Festival in 2006, which highlights contemporary music. Over the years it has featured an international roster of guests ranging from , , Kyaw Kyaw Naing, , and to , , and . He's also directed festivals in Brooklyn, London, and Cork, Ireland, some combining other arts with music.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Dessner began receiving commissions from organizations such as the American Composers Forum and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. A commission from , Aheym (2009), was the first to bring him wider attention and was the centerpiece on a 2013 disc devoted to his music. St. Carolyn by the Sea (2011), a double concerto for electric guitars, commissioned in part by Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, along with two other Dessner works, was paired with film music by for its premiere recording performed by the Copenhagen Philharmonic and , released in 2014 on . Other notable Dessner creations are Music for Wood and Strings, for , performed on instruments designed by Dessner and Aron Sanchez; and Murder Ballades, featured on 's Grammy-nominated album Filament. Another Grammy-nominated album with Dessner's name on it was 's 2013 Trouble Will Find Me, on which he worked as producer and orchestrator as well as performer.

In 2013, Dessner became composer-in-residence at Muziekgebouw Eindhoven for a three-year period. During the residency, his band released the nine-LP box set Lot of Sorrow (2015), which captured a live, MoMA-hosted performance art collaboration with Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson from 2013. Dessner also contributed to the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning film The Revenant (2015), and a score he wrote with his brother for the 2016 thriller Transpecos received a soundtrack release on . In 2017, the label released Planetarium, a collaborative work inspired by the Solar System that featured music by Dessner, , , and drummer .

In 2019, Dessner collaborated with and on When We Are Inhuman, which was part of Dessner's "Murder Ballades" series. ~ Patsy Morita, Rovi