So: I saw Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, and Matthew Ritchie’s The Long Count at BAM earlier tonight. While I’m still getting my head around the piece itself, I had a couple of stray thoughts on the piece.
1. Primarily: the piece is excellent. Dynamic enough for those in the audience who know the Dessners through their work in The National; complex enough so that it didn’t seem out of place in an opera house.
2. I’ve heard music made by the Deal sisters for over fifteen years now, and I had no idea that their vocal range is what it is. For the first part of The Long Count, their vocals are somewhat distorted; in its second half, their vocal appearances hit with a depth and clarity I wouldn’t have imagined.
3. Shara Worden’s vocals mesh with the Dessners’ music scarily well. The Dark Was the Night compilation proved that the Dessners can write well for multiple vocalists, but her approach meshed with their music especially well; it’s a collaboration that I hope extends beyond this piece.
4. I’m pretty sure Antony Hegarty was two people in front of me on line to get in. Dude is tall.
Also worth reading: interviews pertaining to the piece in Pitchfork, Flavorwire, and Brooklyn Vegan. One hopes that an album version will see the light of day before long — this is music I’d welcome the ability to revisit.
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