In a world of constant information and lightning-paced entertainment overload, the last things on the minds of most musicians are space and rest.
But those have become the unexpected driving forces behind the music of Oklahoman composer and pianist Lauren Sonder.
Rather than chasing the energy of an uptempo dance track or the intensity of cranked, wall-of-sound rock or pop, Sonder’s music is designed to slow down and to make room for the listener to absorb and appreciate the quiet spaces and reverberations that are built into her solo piano compositions.
Songs like the ones that make up her 2025 release “missing” encourage stillness and quiet, internal contemplation, and reward patience with new textures and soft melodies rising out of every rest.
Lauren Sonder: What I am actually really interested in is music that gives enough time and space where you can really focus on tiny changes.
When things slow down, when things spread out, that stuff has always been the most exciting stuff musically to me. So then any music that's doing that is always interesting to me.
Brett Fieldcamp: After a lifetime of classical training and a master’s in music composition, Sonder said that she found herself drawn away from the bombast and tonal density that so often defines classical and orchestral work and toward the kind of soft, patient sounds of ambient music and minimalism, even as she admits that embracing so much space and quiet can often feel vulnerable or even scary.
Lauren Sonder: You know, I think those spaces or long pauses or taking a tempo and choosing to go slow, it kind of gives you, as a performer, like, it kind of makes you nervous, like, am I going to lose everybody?
So I've kind of just tried to lean into that. I will find myself even taking my hands off the keys and then bringing them back to kind of remind myself, like, I can take as much time as I want.
Brett Fieldcamp: But she also wants to remind others of that as well, and to encourage her listeners to embrace that same slowness and quiet space with her upcoming performance and discussion event “After Rest,” February 20th at Norman’s Uncanny Art House.
The event aims to create a cozy and comfortable space for listeners to rest and give themselves over to her compellingly sparse piano compositions, but also to consider and discuss what rest itself can mean or accomplish for our own minds and motivations.
Lauren Sonder: It's a nontraditional show, so in the middle is an uninterrupted set of piano music, original piano music, that I play, meaning we don't, you know, stop and applaud between each piece or whatever.
People are invited to lay down. You can bring a yoga mat or a blanket or pillow and just kind of get cozy on the floor, and there will also be chairs for people who prefer to just fully sit that way.
It's meant to kind of be like an introspective experience, and so it's a show, but before that happens, and then after that happens, we're going to be engaging with each other in discussion about what makes a space restful. And then after the show, kind of like what happens next after we have a chance to rest or allow ourselves to rest, because those questions are really interesting to me.
Brett Fieldcamp: Questions of rest and of beneficial recuperation are never far from Sonder’s mind, and she’s hoping to foster the same kind of thinking through her “After Rest” performances, not just by inviting listeners into an inclusively soft-sensory space, but also by guiding a discussion following the music that asks how periods of rest can organize thoughts, enhance resolve, and even focus the more active energies that we too often waste without rest.
Lauren Sonder: I am neurodivergent and need a lot of rest to function, and so it kind of is born out of the needs that I've found that I have, and the needs of a lot of my friends. Talking about spaces and how we're affected by spaces is just something I spent years and years and years thinking about.
And the rest doesn't have to be like sleeping. It can just be like taking a pause in your day, or scheduling time to not do x, y, z, because I like to talk about things like, “okay, now that we've rested, what's possible now that wasn't possible before?”
It's kind of like just walking people through that process and trying to get them to tap into what happens next. Like, rest kind of can be like the bridge from here to there.
Brett Fieldcamp: Lauren Sonder’s next “After Rest” performance and discussion event takes place Friday, February 20th at Uncanny Art House in Norman, and her most recent EP, “missing,” is streaming everywhere now.
For more, visit laurensonder.com.
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