PERMANENT MOVES RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM, DON’T FORGET US: A CHEKHOVIAN SONG CYCLE, TODAY
RECORD RELEASE SHOW AT BROOKLYN’S SULTAN ROOM ON APRIL 16
Permanent Moves is Shane Chapman and Julia Sirna-Frest, an indie-electro-folk-rock duo from Brooklyn, NY. They started writing music together in 2016 based on found texts and have grown into an unique blend of eclectic orchestrations and soaring, emotional harmonies that The New York Times has called “sonically gorgeous.” Their concept album Don't Forget Us: A Chekhovian Song Cycle – out today – uses the work of Anton Chekhov as inspiration and their north star. The project features Chris Giarmo (American Utopia), Jessie Shelton (Hadestown), Karl Blau, Starr Busby and many other special guests. It also features translations by Laurence Senelick.
Permanent Moves will celebrate the release of Don't Forget Us: A Chekhovian Song Cycle with a live performance on April 16 at Brooklyn’s Sultan Room. Tickets are available now.
Artist Statement:
For the past 7 years we have been working on and performing these songs in a myriad of ways from a 16 person band at Ars Nova to a duo set in a living room in Vancouver, Canada. We have both been drawn to Chekhov’s work because it speaks to the questions we often sit around talking about. What are the lives not lived? How does one survive the monotony of everyday life? Failure, living up to one’s potential, longing for a bigger life. You know, the hits of the human condition.
This album feels very ripe for this moment because the past few years has led many people to reassess their lives, to question whether they’ve made the right choices. For us in the performing arts, the entire industry was yanked away and it feels like a chance to ponder our existence, a very Chekhovian thing to do. His work reminds us that life is lived in the in-between moments. Huge things happen in a Chekhov play, people die, love is lost, a gun might go off but the focus is watching the characters muck through it as we all must do. We’re hoping to give people a good soundtrack for their personal mucking. We can all be uplifted by a good horn section, right? As Charles McNulty put it so elegantly: “Chekhov’s art doesn’t seek to correct but merely to point out that as we’re dreaming of better days our real lives are quietly unfolding.”
More about Julia Sirna-Frest:
Julia Sirna-Frest is a performer, director and musician. Favorite performance credits include: [Porto] (WP Theater, The Bushwick Starr); Lunch Bunch (PlayCo, Clubbed Thumb); Seder (Hartford Stage); A Tunnel Year (The Chocolate Factory); The Offending Gesture (Mac Wellman); Comfort Dogs: Live from the Pink House (JACK). She is a founding member of the Obie award-winning Half Straddle company, productions include: Ghost Rings (TBA/PICA); Ancient Lives (The Kitchen); Seagull (Thinking of you) (The New Ohio, International Tour); In the Pony Palace/Football (The Bushwick Starr, International Tour); Nurses in New England (The Ohio); The Knockout Blow (The Ontological). She’s a Composer/Performer with Permanent Moves and co-front woman of Doll Parts, Brooklyn’s premiere Dolly Parton cover band. Julia has also directed many projects written by her artistic soul mate, Zoë Geltman. Julia’s a member of the 2022-2024 WP Lab and a New Georges Jam Cohort!
More about Shane Chapman:
Shane Chapman is a composer and musician living in Gowanus, Brooklyn. As a composer, he has written music for film, theater and podcasts including for the award-winning documentary Silent Forests, Emily Black is a Total Gift (Daaimah Mubashshir, Fisher Center), Comfort Dogs (William Burke, JACK), and Cleopatra Boy (A Host of People, National Tours). He has performed and recorded with The Peter Ulrich Collaboration, and is a composer/performer with Permanent Moves, which will release their debut LP Don't Forget Us in April 2024. He performs with and is the music director of Doll Parts, Brooklyn's premiere Dolly Parton cover band. He’s released 2 albums with his rock band Anacortes. Shane has a Masters in Composition from Brooklyn College.