Tyshawn Sorey leads an electro-acoustic band on Pillars, a three-CD/two-LP event release issued early next month.

Inspired by Tibetan ceremonial music and Roscoe Mitchell among others and rooted in Zen, Sorey says: “I see the ideal experience as meditative, akin to how it works with ambient music, so that you’re almost ‘listening without listening’ – a Zen way of experiencing music.”

The revered drummer composer developed Pillars in a residency at Roulette in Brooklyn and expanded the piece to an octet.

“The notation is the map, not the destination. It’s not dissimilar to John Coltrane’s extended works, in that it’s the dynamic flow that’s the most important thing. I think we achieved something special in the studio that we could never replicate live. To me, the recording is the piece.”  

Look for it on Firehouse 12 Records.