Road-Tested Songs by Sō Percussion and Caroline Shaw, In-Studio

Sample collaborative music by Pulitzer Prize-winning vocalist/composer Caroline Shaw and the versatile quartet Sō Percussion from their latest release, Rectangles and Circumstance, as played in-studio.

Composer/vocalist/violinist Caroline Shaw, who has produced for Kanye West and Nas, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for her Partita for 8 Voices, which was written for and performed with the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth; she also teaches at NYU. Brooklyn-based Sō Percussion (Eric Cha-Beach, Adam Sliwinski, Josh Quillen, Jason Treuting) is a force of music and noise-making comprised of composer/percussionists/instrument builders/finders who beat, shake, bow, immerse, and rip all kinds of things – home goods and instruments - both acoustic and electric; they also compose. 

The members of Sō have worked with Shaw as a composer (Narrow Sea), and collaboratively as a band as on the latest, Rectangles and Circumstance. They’ve described their groups songwriting as lyrics via adaptations of poetry, or by a band member - and music which can morph - whether added to and/or sliced up; it’s a process where everyone contributes equally. Sō describes percussion as an ethos – a willingness to make any and all sounds as requested, by whatever means necessary - whether that is a keyboard, a crotale dipped in water, or ripping a roll of duct tape in time. Despite everything being counted off in four, there are “beats of deceit”, where the music surfs on the edge of some meter, and it carries you, (-Caroline Shaw.) Listen to some of these songs with contributions by Caroline Shaw, and with her band Ringdown, together with Sō Percussion, as played live, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Sing On 2. Slow Motion 3. The Parting Glass

Sample collaborative music by Pulitzer Prize-winning vocalist/composer Caroline Shaw and the versatile quartet Sō Percussion from their latest release, Rectangles and Circumstance, as played in-studio.

Composer/vocalist/violinist Caroline Shaw, who has produced for Kanye West and Nas, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for her Partita for 8 Voices, which was written for and performed with the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth; she also teaches at NYU. Brooklyn-based Sō Percussion (Eric Cha-Beach, Adam Sliwinski, Josh Quillen, Jason Treuting) is a force of music and noise-making comprised of composer/percussionists/instrument builders/finders who beat, shake, bow, immerse, and rip all kinds of things – home goods and instruments - both acoustic and electric; they also compose. 

Listen to some of these songs with contributions by Caroline Shaw, and with her band Ringdown, together with Sō Percussion, as played live, in-studio.