Tyshawn Sorey spent a whirlwind spring at Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival, but once he sat down with Lara Downes the noise fell away. He dove into Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)—a piece inspired by Rothko’s dark-at-first paintings in the Houston chapel and Morton Feldman’s haunting score—showing how extreme silence and space can illuminate the tiniest shifts of sound and light.
For Sorey, letting go of musical conventions is second nature: he moves between drums, trombone, piano, improvisation and notation to create textures that evolve at their own pace. Bass-baritone Davóne Tines, one of the performers, says the real magic lives in those pauses—they’re not empty, but moments of reflection, rest and relief in our fast-paced world.
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