“Pillars”, by Tyshawn Sorey.

Black American composer Tyshawn Sorey (Newark, 1980) has outdone himself. Known as a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist, his classical and jazz training also make him a solid improvisational composer, and this ambitious work (a four-hour triptych for octet) marks a major step forward in his creation. Based on Stockhausen’s concept of the “form of the moment” – in which moments are not heard as they happen, but as they are structured to happen – Sorey has created in the three long pieces that make up Pillars a mosaic of independent sections – or moments, replacing linear narrative with a deeply immersive polyvalent structure, bringing together elements of jazz, contemporary electronica and drone, using instruments ranging from electric guitar and drums to dungchen – the long metal trumpet of Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies – double basses and brass.