Meredith Monk - Cellular Songs (Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble)

Information

Composer: Meredith Monk

1. Click Song #3 Prologue
2. Cell Trio I
3. Cell Trio II
4. Cell Trio III
5. Dyads
6. Happy Woman
7. Click Song #3
8. Branching
9. Lullaby for Lise
10. Generation Dance
11. Breathstream
12. Dive
13. Melt
14. Passing
15. Nyems

Meredith Monk

Ellen Fisher

Katie Geissinger

Joanna Lynn-Jacobs

Allison Sniffin

John Hollenbeck

Date: 2025

Label: ECM New Series

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Meredith Monk (b. 1942, New York City) is a pioneering composer, singer, director, and interdisciplinary artist whose six-decade career has profoundly shaped contemporary music and performance. Renowned for her innovative use of the voice as an instrument, she bridges music, movement, image, and space to create deeply expressive works. A MacArthur Fellow and National Medal of Arts recipient, Monk has been celebrated worldwide for her groundbreaking compositions, operas, and films. Founder of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, she has recorded extensively with ECM New Series. Her recent projects include the trilogy On Behalf of Nature, Cellular Songs, and Indra’s Net, exploring humanity’s connection to the natural world.

Monk’s Cellular Songs emphasizes “cooperation, interdependence, and kindness” as a counterbalance to modern social divisions. Described by The New York Times as evoking “an unmistakable sense of hope,” the work merges diverse artistic elements into a seamless whole. As the second part of a trilogy begun with On Behalf of Nature, it explores the microscopic world of cellular processes—replication, mutation, and growth—as metaphors for human connection. Monk envisions the music as sculptural, moving and rotating in space rather than simply layered. Recorded at New York’s Power Station in 2022 and 2024, this is her thirteenth ECM New Series album.