I make music with many inspiring people, sometimes as a composer-bandleader, others as a sideperson or collaborator. My music is highly interactive, integrating composition with open forms of improvisation. I also explore technologies of liveness including telematic performance, algorithmic scores and live sampling/processing.
Below are some listening samples, and links to more info, scores, teaching materials and writings. Thanks for listening.
Somewhere in the upstream
Album (Clean Feed Records) by the Michael Dessen Trio, dedicated to Yusef Lateef
“Three master improvisers — Dessen on trombone and computer, bassist Christopher Tordini and drummer Dan Weiss — collaborate with help from a computer that acts both as an electronic roadmap and a fourth improvising group member. Dessen uses a ‘scorestream’ that displays on-screen notations that vary unpredictably each time the piece is performed. The results are startling, from pensive to aggressive, punctuated by moments of cosmic electronica.” – Downbeat
Excerpts:
What Peace Can We Hear
Michael Dessen, trombone/composition
Myra Melford, piano
Mark Dresser, bass
Performed on a telematic (multi-location) concert, livestreamed by WBGO’s The Checkout
Digibone Forest
Album Digibone Forest (Accretions Records) by Michael Dessen, trombone/computer/composition
“… Fast sequences of deformed snapshots, ironic hints to hard-to-pinpoint realities, awkward polyrhythms, bionic animal chit-chat, even quasi-celestial revelations… In the midst of all this, Dessen maintains a distinct melodic sense that never transcends into vulgar or syrupy.” – Toucing Extremes
The Usual Suspects:
Mensural Refractions:
All Nearness Pauses
From Changing Tides 2, a telematic concert performed live between Korea and California (2020)
Featuring Bae Il Dong, Yoon Jeong Heo, Jean Oh , Aram Lee, Min Wang Hwang, Jungpyo Lee, Bo Sul Kim, Mark Dresser, Stephanie Richards, Wilfrido Terrazas, Joshua White and Michael Dessen
Composed by Michael Dessen
Lineal
Michael Dessen, trombone
Vijay Iyer, piano
Mark Dresser, bass
Susie Ibarra, drums
Composed by Michael Dessen
From the album Lineal (Circumvention Records)
Fossils and Flows
From the album Forget the Pixel (Clean Feed Records), by the Michael Dessen Trio
Michael Dessen, trombone/computer/composition
Christopher Tordini, bass
Dan Weiss, drums
“Dessen switches between voluptuous lyricism and digitally distorted splatter, and his shifts between those poles never feel forced or arbitrary. This is the trio’s second album, and it sounds like the work of a gigging band….These guys don’t just play together, they’re playing. This playfulness, as much as their fluid negotiations of Dessen’s jagged rhythms and elaborate melodies, is the spoonful of sugar that make these rigorous improvisations go down easy.” – Downbeat
For instance, today
Excerpt from a piece performed on Virtual Tour: A Reduced Carbon Footprint Concert Series
Performed by Nicole Mitchell, Myra Melford, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Jason Robinson, Bob Weiner and Michael Dessen
Composed by Michael Dessen
The Rumpus
From the album Eyes in the back of my head (Cuneiform Records), by Cosmologic
Performed by Cosmologic: Jason Robinson, Michael Dessen, Scott Walton, and Nathan Hubbard
Composed by Michael Dessen
“Over the ten years Cosmologic has existed, they’ve learned not only how to play high level original contemporary improvised music, but have attained a unique style few stable or working groups have attained…. The fearless attitude that this group exhibits in taking chances, yet remaining quite listenable, is a rare thing.” – All Music Guide
Telematics
MD Trio
Digibone
Scores
Writings
Teaching
