Tyshawn Sorey spent a whirlwind week at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, debuting Monochromatic Light (Afterlife), a nearly hour-long piece inspired by the Rothko Chapel and Morton Feldman’s 1971 score. Recorded in NPR’s converted railroad depot studio, the work ditches conventional structure in favor of hushed dynamics and stretched time—much like gazing at Rothko’s almost-black canvases and noticing the tiniest shifts of light.
As a drummer, trombonist, pianist and composer, Sorey moves seamlessly between improvisation and notation, always centering silence and space. Bass-baritone Davóne Tines, who stars in the piece, says those pauses become “places of reflection and rest,” offering a rare release from the nonstop noise of modern life.
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