When the singer, composer, violinist, and ingenious electronics enthusiast Caroline Shaw released two records with the long-running and ever-inventive ensemble Sō Percussion in just one year, 2021, it was clear that two kindred spirits had connected amid their own explorations. The New York quartet has been at the fore of new music for a quarter-century, their intricate and playful approach to performance and sound design resulting in works alongside Steve Reich, Glenn Kotche, and Bryce Dessner, among many others. They defy expectations, expand understandings of sound. The same holds for Shaw, a North Carolina-born powerhouse who played violin in ACME, sang in Roomful of Teeth, and became the youngest person ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music with her Partita for 8 Voices. Shaw and Sō Percussion sound singular while seeming limitless, too.
In 2024, after touring their first works together, Shaw and Sō Percussion reunited for Rectangles and Circumstance, a set of 10 audacious songs inspired by the works of Emily Dickinson and William Blake. Patient and painstaking, the works use extended techniques and exacting rhythms to create ever-shifting beds for Shaw’s voice, soft but steely. In recent years, Shaw has been breaking from her classical past and recording infectious electronic pop with her partner, Danni Lee, as Ringdown. In these ensemble performances, Lee finds sweet spots of harmony with Shaw on new songs before Ringdown steps to the center for a few dazzling pieces of their own. Shaw, Sō Percussion, and Ringdown are self-renewing vehicles for musical surprise; their program together unfolds as a fantasy of beautiful song and byzantine rhythm.
