Pat Thomas
Live In Antwerp
Recorded live in 2007 at the WIM free music festival,here we have Spring Heel Jack's penultimate live concert. This beautifully recorded set featuring the great Pat Thomas, Alex Ward and Paul Lytton captures the vivid and multilayered musical imaginations of this quintet brilliantly.An essential record.
The Founder Effect III
Excellent as the two quartet discs are, the trilogy saves its ace to the end, thus bringing it to a fitting climax. (Despite that, it is worth stressing that this trilogy should best be heard altogether, rather than one of its discs being cherry-picked.) The pairing of Pat Thomas's piano and Steve Noble's percussion—credited as "The Both"—is an ideal match. The two had recorded together before, on And (Rectangle, 1997) with Derek Bailey, but with Noble on turntables not drums—an encounter that g…
The Founder Effect II
With a generosity of spirit that is touching, the three tracks on this disc are titled after deceased (and much missed) improv heroes—drummer Tony Marsh, saxophonists Lol Coxhill and John Tchicai. (Coxhill never recorded for Treader but Marsh and Tchicai both did.) That gesture serves as a reminder of the close-knit nature of the improv community—a factor which is vital to its music. Although this CD features the same four musicians as the first one, Coxon here plays synthesiser instead of guita…
The Founder Effect I
You cannot judge a book by its cover. Maybe, but music fans somehow know that expression doesn't lend itself to album covers (in this case, CD covers). Look at the Blue Note Records covers from the 1960 sixties, Miles Davis' On The Corner (Columbia, 1972), or The Clash's London Calling (Columbia, 1979), and tell me you don't have a very good idea what you'll hear on those records. Covers matter, and more importantly they reveal essential information about the music found inside. Since 2004, the …
Al-Khwarizmi Variations
A major solo statement, Al-Khwarizmi Variations traverses the history and the physicality of the piano.Working both inside and outside the instrument's body, at times playing with recognisable musical material, at others going deep into sonic abstraction, Pat Thomas presents a compelling vision of what the piano can do in the 21st century.Extremes entwine in his playing: solidity and flow; seriousness and laughter; uproar and imperturbability.
And
Derek Bailey, electric guitar. Pat Thomas, keyboards. Steve Noble, turntables. Recorded at Moat Studios, London, August 1997.
About
A new group comprising Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor, This Heat's Charles Hayward and Treader label regulars John Coxon and Pat Thomas, this quartet are an explosive improvisational outfit, with Hayward leading from the backline via some stunningly powerful drumming. The remainder of the musicians take up predominantly electronic instruments - mostly synthesizers and samplers, but within Taylor's musical menagerie you'll hear a spot of electric guitar, percussion and shruti box. This record is more o…
3 pianos
Three grand pianists on three grand pianos. The presence of three good pianos at Gateway Studio allows one to hear three of the best improvising pianists working together. Most of the music is three-way improvisation, but there are also three short duos, and three pieces with restricting rules. 66 minutes.
Zahir
Hiss is an improvisational quartet made up of one Englishman and three Norwegians with an instrumental line-up that is unremarkable enough, but with a sound that is fairly unique. Keyboardist/electronicist Pat Thomas is a veteran of the British free improv scene while guitarist Ivar Grydeland, bassist Tonny Kluften and percussionist Ingar Zach -- though the latter three are younger -- are mainstays of the Norwegian free jazz and improv cultures. The reasoning behind the Arabic-sounding track tit…