Canadian composer Sarah Davachi has released a new album, "The Will of Tongues," inviting listeners to engage in prolonged and attentive listening experiences. Released on Friday, the expansive work spans two hours and 19 minutes, featuring solo and chamber music composed in 2024 and 2025. The album includes performances by Davachi on organ alongside the Chamber Choir of Ireland, Renaissance flute consort Phaedrus, Los Angeles brass ensemble Diapason, and string players Whitney Johnson, Eyvind Kang, and Lucy Railton.

Davachi’s music occupies a distinctive space that challenges contemporary listening habits often characterized by distraction or rapid consumption. Emphasizing an "ethical component" to sound, the 38-year-old composer encourages audiences to confront music that demands focus and patience, particularly when engaging with complex or uncomfortable material. Her approach aligns with her background in philosophy and musicology, drawing on phenomenology—the study of subjective experience—to explore the nuances of timbre and emotional affect.

The album blends acoustic and electroacoustic elements, rooted in long-form composition traditions linked to figures such as Eliane Radigue and La Monte Young. While some pieces, such as "The Rose Dialogues," use classical forms like canons, others incorporate experimental tuning systems. For example, the organ work "Four Narrow Forms" uses a "well temperament" designed by Herbert Keller in 1975, echoing tuning practices that may have been familiar to J.S. Bach, resulting in subtle variations in harmonic color and texture.

Davachi’s compositions often unfold slowly, with shifts and developments becoming significant events over time. In "The Rose Dialogues," a delicate introduction of a dissonant violin line contrasts with the steady organ timbres, offering a rare punctuation in the music’s otherwise sustained flow. Interspersed throughout the album are three lengthy "Interludes," which are open-score pieces granting performers freedom to shape the music’s progression, fostering a collaborative "consort-like" atmosphere.

Despite the music’s minimalist and often meditative character, the album emphasizes presence and immersion, revealing listeners’ tendencies toward distraction—a frequent experience described by Davachi when people realize partway through a piece that their attention has lapsed. Rather than reprimanding, the work invites repeated listening, creating space for reflection on the act of listening itself.

Davachi, based in Los Angeles, produces her work through her label Late Music and continues to contribute prolifically to contemporary experimental and classical music scenes. "The Will of Tongues" stands as a testament to her commitment to crafting seemingly primordial sound worlds that blend historical practices with modern sensibilities, ultimately offering a manifesto on the value of uninterrupted listening in an era of constant distraction.