Members of M6 on impermanence CD

Silvie Jensen and Sasha Bogdanowitsch, two members of the M6, join Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble on a new album, impermanence, which was released in March.

In November 2002, Mieke van Hoek, Monk’s partner of 22 years, suddenly died—a major shock which triggered fundamental doubts in the significance of art and art-making altogether. A few months later, Monk was approached by Rosetta Life, a London based organization which connects artists with hospice patients. “They asked me to write music for a play about their stories but I expressed that I was more interested in making an interdisciplinary piece about impermanence since at the time that subject was occupying most of my thoughts. After spending time with Rosetta Life workers and patients in London, a deeply moving experience, I began seeing the piece as an abstract, poetic evocation of the passages of life.

Read more about impermanence here.

“impermanence is a meditation on death and the passage of time, done with Monk’s inimitable brand of voluptuous spareness. With its fluid blend of choral music, song, film and dance, it marks the latest unclassifiable effort by this visionary creator.”
—Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

“…a lovely, rueful full-evening disquisition on death and the dying. That’s not to say that impermanence is either depressing or maudlin. The work…exalts life.”
—Allan Ulrich, Voice of Dance

“Voices and movements approach loss and remembrance profoundly, making poetry of the mundane and seasoning it with wit.”
—Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice