Manas - The most yielding thing in the world will overcome the most rigid (2026) [Hi-Res]

MANAS is an improvising duo from Asheville, active since 2012: guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Thom Nguyen. Their music draws on free jazz, noise, punk and experimental music, and in concert pairs explosive energy with close attention to texture and form. Their new album, The most yielding thing in the world will overcome the most rigid, began as a score for 100 Sunset, the award-winning feature debut of Tibetan-Canadian director Kunsang Kyirong, who invited the duo to write it. It was recorded at Ritual Botanica, an herbal apothecary on the French Broad River, one of the oldest rivers in the world. The musicians chose to emphasize space, repetition and restraint, building song structures in real time.

The result is a sonic unity the duo has never reached before. The opening track, “100 sunset,” which became the film’s main theme, shows it at once: Dorji’s prepared guitar, with its sharp-edged attack, sounds almost like a drum kit, while Nguyen’s bass drums are tuned to the key of the guitar. On “For the Wild,” form emerges from nothing, like an oasis appearing out of a desert mirage; on “Dreams of Durdak,” sound accumulates like tides against a shore; and “destituons le monde” rages like the eye of a circling hurricane. Often Dorji keeps time while Nguyen roams freely, and the instruments seem to merge.

The title echoes the 43rd verse of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching: the yielding overcomes the rigid, the empty is the most full, and stillness and silence benefit more than action and words. The duo embodies this idea, combining silence and space with attentive mutual attunement. For Dorji, improvising in the immediacy of the moment is the most radical thing he has ever done: music made with the intention of opening people’s ears. His career spans countless solo and collaborative concerts and records, including work with Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), composer Susie Ibarra and Chicago drummer Tyler Damon. He calls MANAS “a kinship,” “a brotherhood,” “rhizomatic” — and like a rhizome, the album unfolds organically, bringing great natural beauty.

Tracklist:
01-01 Manas, Tashi Dorji, Thom Nguyen - 100 sunset [13:12]
01-02 Manas - Dreams of Durdak [15:46]
01-03 Manas - For the Wild [12:10]
01-04 Manas - destituons le monde [17:56]