I Care If You Listen: Making Essential Music with Essential Tremor
Matthew Evan Taylor’s piece for TREMOR is a part of his breath-centered musical practice, a framework he calls “AfroPneumaism,” drawn from principles of Black liberation and radical rest. The title, pneuma, is an ancient Greek word for “breath,” and the work purposefully rejects the traditional standards that we use to measure success. To perform this, I am asked simply to breathe, pacing the music to my body’s natural rhythms.
