Kronos Quartet and The National’s guitarist Bryce Dessner released yesterday a collaborative album entitled Aheym, which means “homeward” in Yiddish. Aheym, before turning into an album, was the first piece they conceived together, after Kronos founder David Harrington invited Dressner to write a piece for their performance at the Celebrate Brooklyn! festival at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in 2009. As the press release describes, Aheym “was informed by the stories of Dessner’s Jewish immigrant grandparents who settled near the park”.
Coinciding with the album release, the magnificent track ‘Tour Eiffel’ is being offered with a visual accompaniment in the shape of Passages, a short film by Alex Braverman and Poppy de Villeneuve directed by Dianne Berkun. Featuring the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, ‘Tour Eiffel’ is based on a poem by early 20th-century Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro, who wrote about the Eiffel Tower at the time it had just been built. Watch the short film beneath.

Aheym is out now via Anti-.