Devotees of the experimental scene know that Tyshawn Sorey thinks big. He won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2017 and premiered a new song cycle with Opera Philadelphia the following year, and he has continued to revise and refine a dramatic tribute to Josephine Baker. While fans wait for some of those ambitious projects to be recorded, the composer and multi-instrumentalist has recently turned to the intimacy of duo sets.
It would be a mistake to think of these as minor offerings. Last fall brought an inspired concert recording with veteran pianist Marilyn Crispell. Now there’s another gem under that same heading. Invisible Ritual pairs Sorey off with the violinist and composer Jennifer Curtis, a player from the International Contemporary Ensemble, an elite new-classical crew. Once again, this set documents fully improvised performances. But there’s nothing tossed off about it.
Curtis’s range as a soloist is a revelation. She proves a nimble listener and co-leader as she works with Sorey to create a 76-minute program rich with narrative drama. There are no track titles (other than Roman numerals). But instrumental music as expressive as this doesn’t need any additional poetry.
The short opening movement introduces an amalgam of attributes that the pair will explore in greater depth over the duration of the album. Free-improv twangs of violin and skittering cymbals set the stage for airy textures, but before long, kick-drum blasts and strummed strings tease the influence of propulsive folk forms. Country blues and vintage rock have their place in this mix, as do the calm and the not-quite-silence of select Art Ensemble of Chicago deep cuts.
The following movements make good on these promises. Sorey tends to produce sounds all over his kit, playing even the edges (or sides) of every piece of equipment in his arsenal. And Curtis can match him texture for texture, tossing off clean-tone, song-like sounds, as well as quivering glissandi, and moving between jaunty pizzicato plucking and bowing close to the bridge—the latter effect producing thin, piping harmonics. After she plays a fragment of melody, the delicate extended techniques from her violin that follow sometimes suggest wisps of some phantom turntablist’s remix.
At two points during the set, Sorey switches to piano (a side of his multi-instrumentalism that hasn’t been all that prominent on recordings). During the third track, he shows the same feel for nuance and delicacy that can be heard in his subtler percussion work. On the fifth track, he becomes a speed demon with a light touch. Adopting an edgier tone while matching Sorey’s quickness of thought, Curtis provides a winning element of contrast.
Beautiful balladry takes center stage during the sixth movement. Feel free to skip directly to this part if you’re eager to hear how a free-improv session might channel conventional loveliness. But those who have been keeping up with Sorey’s recent work won’t be surprised. After that pinnacle of songful gorgeousness, the duo ventures back toward passages of tumult; the recording ends with an extended exploration of sparser, quieter energies.
This album may not announce itself as capital-I Important; it lacks some of the superficial, external signs of ambition that can help audiences understand how serious a work intends to be. There is no operatic libretto here; nor is there much of a promotional engine in place. (The album is released by the International Contemporary Ensemble’s own Tundra label.) But the quality of interplay to found here is always news, whenever and however it makes itself heard.
