This music's about everything that's ever happened and will. From a uniquely universal perspective in the middle of this particular moment of eternity. It's a solo album in collaboration with the new Korg Wavestate, and by extension, the engineers who created it. Recorded live in one short session with no overdubs, a deep dive between two curious and responsive partners. It's playful music made with electrons, synapses and surprises.
On this recording, I limited myself to one preset that I programmed ahead of time. You'll hear four distinct layers of sounds: an acoustic piano, an orchestra and two layers of percussion manipulated in multitude ways. The morning before I recorded the album, I came across a photo ACVilla took of me in Biloxi, Mississippi. It looked like I was leaping into infinity. And I thought, "That's what we do, from birth through every day of our lives." Then I sat down at the instrument and it all just came out, naturally together as one concept. Life is all about leaps, one big arcing leap filled with infinite micro leaps. We're all bubbles in a babbling brook. Surfing the sticks and stones. This was a day full of sonic adventure and discovery as well as an expression of my existence, a culmination of 19,407 rotations of the earth. Each one a day in the leap of sound, ideas and identity. You'll know silence after this.
released April 29, 2020
Cover art by ACVilla -
www.acvillavisions.com
Mastered by Seán Mac Erlaine -
www.seanmacerlaine.com
Thollem is a perpetually traveling pianist, keyboardist, composer, improviser, singer-songwriter, activist, author and teacher, he's spent most of his life living on the road throughout North America and Europe. His work is ever-changing, evolving and responding to the times and his experiences, both as a soloist and in collaboration with hundreds of artists across idioms and disciplines. Thollem's known internationally as an acoustic piano player in the free jazz and post-classical worlds, as the lead vocalist for the Italian agit-punk band Tsigoti and as an electronic keyboardist through a multitude of projects.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Thollem began playing the piano, composing and improvising as a child, absorbing the sounds of his culturally diverse upbringing. As an adult he has continued to incorporate the breadth of musics he has experienced on his extensive travels. Since 2005, he has played over 1,500 concerts throughout N. America and Europe as a soloist and in collaboration with other musicians, dancers and filmmakers. In that time span, as leader or co-leader, Thollem has released over 60 albums on 22 different vanguard labels to international critical acclaim. A very brief cross section of his many collaborators include William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Stefano Scodanibbio, Nels Cline, Rob Mazurek, Michael Wimberly and Carmina Escobar. He is also a published author about art, politics and his travels in The Anthology of Essays On Deep Listening, Full Moon Magazine (Prague) and First American Art Magazine. Read More:
thollemelectric.com
Acousmatique is a record label from San Francisco, California that is focused on publishing and promoting the contemporary music in the Acousmatic, Electroacoustic, Immersive Audio, Musique Concrete, and West Coast music genres.