Bryce Dessner moves with supreme ease between at least two worlds: on the indie rock stages as a guitarist and in international concert halls as a composer.
It's a surprising answer that Bryce Dessner gives me when I ask him about his instrument: "My instrument takes many forms, because I like to write for orchestra, which is a huge instrument." It is clear to him that "his instrument" means the orchestra – and not the guitar. He became internationally famous as the guitarist in the indie rock band The National.
For over 20 years, he has helped shape the band's special sound alongside his twin brother Aaron. The National recently released two new albums: the long-awaited "First two pages of Frankenstein" and "Laugh Track", which the band released completely unexpectedly in autumn 2023. It is already the group's tenth album. With their melancholic music, their lyrics with depth, carried by the distinctive voice of lead singer Matt Berninger, and their unobtrusive but complex arrangements, the band still fills large halls on tour in the USA, Canada and throughout Europe, or currently in New Zealand and Australia.
In order to constantly develop their sound spectrum, the formation relies on collaborations - including with one of the most successful pop artists of our time, Taylor Swift, for whom Aaron Dessner has produced several albums. On The National's penultimate album, she takes on the duet part in the song "The Alcott" and, quite unpretentiously, the backing vocals.
Bryce Dessner is similarly unpretentious in personal conversations, he takes his time to answer, with an open gaze and honest reflection. He thinks carefully about what he wants to say, without any pretence. For example, when it comes to his career as a musician. He first learnt the flute as a child and was "pretty good at it". He also mastered the classical guitar, which he then switched to. "Ironically, today I often find myself in situations where virtuosity is not necessarily the primary purpose or goal."
"It's about finding the right notes, not the fastest or the best played notes," says Dessner. He himself is "fortunately" not often in situations where he has to perform "very difficult music": "But I have great respect for musicians who have to do that and therefore practise a lot. That's also the reason why I enjoy composing for orchestra, string quartet and outstanding soloists so much. Because it's a wonderful thing to work with musicians who spend their lives perfecting what they do, and I wouldn't presume to compare myself to them."
His versatility has long put him right at the top. He won a Grammy in 2018 with The National and another two years earlier for the chamber music performance project "Filament" together with the new music ensemble Eighth Blackbird. Composition commissions from such chamber formations and major orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic are just as much a part of his portfolio as film scores. Oscar-winning Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu ("Birdman", 2014) brought Bryce Dessner on board in 2015 for the soundtrack of "The Revenant".
For the soundtrack to the Netflix production "The Two Popes" starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce (directed by Fernando Meirelles, 2019), he went back to his musical roots alongside orchestral arrangements: he immersed himself in composing for classical guitar and did not miss the opportunity to record it himself. "A good director is open to ideas and surrounded by talented people," says Dessner.
With the same openness, he himself is constantly on the lookout for new artistic partners - and sometimes finds them within his own family circle. In addition to his twin brother, his sister is also an artist: Jessica Dessner draws, designs the artwork for records, writes poetry, dances and choreographs. Bryce Dessner has also been closely associated for many years with the piano duo Katia and Marielle Labèque and with guitarist David Chalmin, with whom he performed in Zurich as the Minimalist Dream House Quartet. This season he will be joined by singer Barbara Hannigan: In "Electric Fields", the artists, framed by electronic effects, live video and light projections, explore the musical cosmos - starting with the medieval all-rounder Hildegard von Bingen.
Dessner names Pérotin, the 12th century French composer who followed Hildegard von Bingen almost seamlessly in the history of music, as a key figure in his musical world - alongside Stravinsky, Steve Reich, Bach and Nina Simone. So it is hardly surprising that he found his feet in a wild musical mix during the pandemic alongside his work on The National album: "Funnily enough, I listened to a lot of Japanese ambient music from the 80s", as well as classical and early music. He avoided more contemporary songs because they "somehow depressed him, while music by composers from the 12th century relaxed me."
For himself as a listener as well as for his own music, he emphasises in conversation that "the feeling of diversity and plurality in music" is important to him, "where you can feel a kind of vastness that is perhaps most comparable to nature. If you look at the sea or the mountains, you can recognise both a simplicity and a complexity".
And Bryce Dessner loves looking at mountains. When he's not on tour, he enjoys the view of the Basque mountains of his adopted home. He grew up in Ohio, "in a very boring landscape". Laughing, he adds that he has "very low expectations" and can therefore "live anywhere". The area did have one big advantage, however: the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He had already heard Paavo Järvi there as a teenager when he was chief conductor – a circle that comes full circle when Järvi now performs Dessner's music.
Ambient and medieval chants, indie rock and folk pop, film music and fusion, chamber music and large orchestral works with soloists – Bryce Dessner is at home in each of these equally valid parallel universes of our time. His music is therefore contemporary in the best sense of the word and often a greeting from the multiverse.
Translated with DeepL.com
