Kronos Quartet will give the premiere of "Aheym," a new piece written for the group by the National's Bryce Dessner during a free outdoor concert in Brooklyn's Prospect Park tonight at 7:30 PM. Dessner, in an interview with Pitchfork about this piece and the many other projects he's been working on of late, explains how the collaboration came about:

I've long been a fan of Kronos. I think a lot of people with my kind of background in contemporary music tend to be, because they're just such an important group. When we produced Dark Was the Night this past year, I really wanted to try and get them involved. So I contacted them about doing that arrangement of [Blind Willie Johnson's] "Dark Was the Night", which ended up being the title of the compilation.

He goes on to discuss the roots of the piece's title and the interesting parameters Kronos's David Harrington set for the new work. Read the complete interview at pitchfork.com.

Also on tonight's program are works from Kronos's recent Nonesuch release, Floodplain; a piece by Sigur Rós; one by Michael Gordon; and the world premiere of the piece Harp and Altar by Missy Mazzoli. The concert, with opening act Luminescent Orchestrii, is part of the 31st season of the Celebrate Brooklyn! series of concerts, kicked off earlier this summer by label mate (and fellow Dark Was the Night contributor) David Byrne. For more information, visit briconline.org.