2021 · Album
Uneasy
Recorded 2020 · Pyroclastic Records · Produced by Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey (self-produced)
Three Voices Learning to Listen
Three musicians working without a net, finding language through silence and collision.
Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, and Tyshawn Sorey entered the studio as a trio with no predetermined arrangements—just three voices and the willingness to build something from scratch. The album captures that raw negotiation: how a pianist, bassist, and drummer establish trust through listening rather than script. There's friction here, the kind that comes when nobody settles for obvious answers. Iyer's angular piano doesn't sit comfortably under Oh's deep, searching bass lines; Sorey's drumming doesn't follow traditional timekeeping but instead responds, pushes back, creates space. The album works precisely because these three aren't trying to sound like a working band that's played a hundred clubs. They sound like people solving problems in real time.
The music refuses comfort. Tracks build and dissolve without warning. A phrase that seems to be establishing itself gets dismantled. But that instability is the point. Uneasy isn't a record about mastery—it's about conversation between equals, where disagreement and uncertainty are treated as compositional material rather than flaws to fix. Sorey's polyrhythmic approach to the drums means he's often playing against rather than with the harmonic foundation. Oh's bass moves through registers and melodic territories that suggest she's not just supporting but narrating a separate story. Iyer's piano weaves between accompanist and soloist roles, never settling.
This is a difficult listen by design. It demands the kind of attention most listeners save for speech—you have to track multiple lines at once, accept that resolution might not come. For those willing to sit with that discomfort, the reward is genuine: three accomplished musicians choosing to sound uncertain rather than secure, choosing to leave their questions audible on tape.
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