Thollem - Obstacle Illusion (March 11, 2022 Astral Spirits)

Its simple intricacies wipe the ashen windshield

Feeling its sound intensely close with chirping resonance and soft clattering cats-tails Seeds blowing and quickly tumbling over the damp terrain

When peeking through the clouds, the eye grows

And trees like giant lashes, lashes out into the sun-drunk evening sky

Transported to the salon of dreams where the sound of pianos from a thousand hands Clear the moon’s gravitas and plunks playfully through the streets of another city’s wound

Sinking its broken tapestry claws into new and exciting forms

The resonance is in movement and time

The clarity speaks with a sharp tongue and warm hands

The heart seeps metallic and wanders straight to the meadow of love and kindness Modal synchronies chromatic asymmetries spread roots through wet terrain and things grow

It all grows and grows as bark strips itself from the tree with the prodding of singing rain Bowling its way through the foliage and turquoise petrified forest

Biting itself and eating naturally the fungus from below and shooting up high

Tender bits of golden leaves drifting upward and spiraling haphazard until the sky takes it into its mouth

Using its tongue as a weapon for resounding sound meditations

Splattering the artificial grass with shards of mercury tears and bleeding hands Wounded from too much sun and too much cold

But resilient like the earth, devouring everything

Growing and growing towards an unknowable scarred reality that bursts with every breath

Every ounce of feeling

Peeled and glowing these giant orbs

Projecting their way into other dimensions

While firmly in their own

The pounding of salt and the crackling of burnt rice

Sticking to the palms of the hand and rising and hammering these forms, these shapes, Into glorious resonant beings

Where the plums of Queens and Kings taste sweet

Until that social change renders their bombast sour in new cycles of flowing blood Respondent to itself and the stoppages they procure

Fluctuating in its remittent clots

Clinking ever so lightly on the windowsills of tomorrow's dreams

The hand of hands

The double and triple hands of these hands

Massage the rigor and let it flow

Let rigor loosen its grip on this hypercreativity

Simulacrum

The same of something different

The difference protrudes through the heavens

The difference defines the space around the frequencies

The difference is always there, it's never the same

It can’t be

The constant tapping of what is truly inside

Finding its way through the webs of endless possibilities Swarming itself, eating itself, growing its own food

Its own self-reliant self

Selflessly expounding this brilliant sound

That could only come from these hands

This heart

This exhausted inexhaustible being

Sound the organ of new life

Trill the notes into another shape

Carry the electric storm in your pocket and let it loose when it’s time

Let your pockets grow into enormous sails

Take to the sea

Watch the coast fade and touch your lips to the salt water

Wash your hands in this water and look at yourself in the reflection pool

Swim with the dolphins

Sing with the flying fish

The storm comes quickly and the ripping blasts from the sky

Whip your face and destroy nothing

The pain transforms into a kind of ecstasy

This beauty reverberates itself into another shape

This shape turns itself to you and speaks of nothing in particular

Until the fog that has now drifted so close begins to clarify

And these communications that were once impossible and not particular Become particular. Become the very thing it is made from

Condensation and salt and the weather and the wonderfulness of not knowing Skipping gently across the clear sheets of barely moving water

a tremendously long snake

Caressing the water into a long canal of cryptic whispering trace

We see so clearly how there can be no clarity there can be no rigor

Without the heart creating and gently thumping

In the crevices of time

Bursting its own knowledge

Into something miraculous

- Rob Mazurek December 9, 2021

words constructed in response to the music

Obstacle Illusion is born out of my love for a wide array of musics that I've experienced and studied over the years. The album includes edited live concert recordings from my 3-month European tour at the end of 2021 (Centro d'Arte in Padova, AngelicA Festival in Bologna and the Rassegna di Nuova Musica in Macerata). The first and fourth tracks are solo acoustic piano. The second and third tracks are solely with the Korg Wavestate: all live, no overdubs. This music is the result of a collaboration between myself and the engineers who developed these instruments as well as the halls, the audiences and the dynamics of the world at large. The music is genre-bending, code- switching, omni-idiomatic, internationalist, intersectional and intentional. It represents the culmination of my life’s experiences as a musician and a human being in dialogue with the universe.

Deep gratitude to these historical presenting organizations: Centro d'Arte Padova, AngelicA Festival and the Associazione Nuova Musica. These are institutions that have been presenting musicians for decades, supporting and introducing new and vital works to their communities and the world.

In memory of Stefano Scodanibbio, Enzo Carpentieri and Stephen Paul Trimboli Dedicated to Angela and Maresa 

1. Assorted Selves

2. I Put My Shadow On The Wall

3. Cruising The Mystic Whole

4. The Way To The Way To The Way

Live concert recordings from:

Tracks 1 & 2 - Centro d’Arte dell’Università di Padova at Teatro Torresino in Padua on 28 October 2021.

Recording engineer: José Dicati (JD Service)

Grazie a Veniero Rizzardi, Stefano Merighi, Nicola Negri e Giorgia Masiero

Track 3 - AngelicA | Centro di Ricerca Musicale at Teatro San Leonardo in Bologna on 8 November 2021.

Recording engineer: Gianluca Turrini

Grazie Massimo Simonini e Elisabetta Beddini

Track 4 - Associazione Nuova Musica | Rassegna di Nuova Musica 39 at the Scuola Civica di Musica "Stefano Scodanibbio" in Macerata on 18 November 2021. Recording engineer: Andrea Lambertucci

Grazie a Gianluca Gentili e Maresa Scodanibbio

Mastered by Mikey Young

Photo credit: ACVilla at AngelicA Festival - Teatro San Leonardo

Artwork & Layout by Dylan Marcus McConnell

PRE-ORDER

Thollem / Karl Berger - Thollem's Astral Traveling Sessions (October 1, 2021)

I had the great fortune to meet Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso at their home in Kingston, NY through Michal Bisio who also lives there, of course. I came to town to play a concert with Michael at the Lace Mill and Angela and I spent a few days in the area at Bill Brovold's place. Segments of a recording in duo with Bill as well as a duo with Michael are both included in the August compilation album in the series.

Karl Berger is a six time winner of the Downbeat Critics Poll as a jazz soloist, recipient of numerous Composition Awards ( commissions by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, European Radio and Television: WDR, NDR, SWF, Radio France, Rai Italy. SWF-Prize 1994 ). Professor of Composition, Artist-in-Residence at universities, schools and festivals worldwide; PhD in Music Esthetics.

Karl Berger became noted for his innovative arrangements for recordings by Jeff Buckley ("Grace"), Natalie Merchant ("Ophelia"), Better Than Ezra, The Cardigans, Jonatha Brooke, Buckethead, Bootsie Collins, The Swans, Sly + Robbie, Angelique Kidjo a.o.; and for his collaborations with producers Bill Laswell, Alan Douglas ("Operazone"), Peter Collins, Andy Wallace, Craig Street, Alain Mallet, Malcolm Burn, Bob Marlett a.m.o. in Woodstock, NY. New York City, Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Paris, Rome.

He recorded and performed with Don Cherry, Lee Konitz, John McLaughlin, Gunther Schuller, the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra, Dave Brubeck, Ingrid Sertso, Dave Holland, Ed Blackwell, Ray Anderson, Carlos Ward, Pharoah Sanders, Blood Ulmer, Hozan Yamamoto and many others at festivals and concerts in the US, Canada, Europe, Africa, India, Phillippines, Japan, Mexico, Brazil.

His recordings and arrangements appear on the Atlantic, Axiom, Black Saint, Blue Note, Capitol, CBS, Columbia Double Moon, Douglas Music, Elektra , EMI, Enja, Island, JVC, Knitting Factory, In&Out, MCA, Milestone, Polygram, Pye , RCA, SONY, Stockholm, Vogue a.o.

Founder and director of the Creative Music Foundation, Inc., dba The Creative Music Studio, a not-for-profit corporation, dedicated to the research of the power of music and sound and the elements common to all of the world’s music forms; and to educational presentations through workshops, concerts, recordings, with a growing network of artists and CMS members worldwide.

Conducted CMS Residencies worldwide. In the 90s, Dr. Berger was Professor of Composition and Dean of Music Education at the Hochschule fuer Musik, Frankfurt / Germany. Chairman of the Music Department at UMass Dartmouth till 2006.

Now re-establishing CMS programming in collaboration with producer Rob Saffer, directing the CMS Archive Project, recording and producing.

Performing internationally with the Allstar Ensemble "In the Spirit of Don Cherry" and with numerous projects, collaborating with vocalist/poet Ingrid Sertso ( contact CreativeMusicAgency@gmail.com ). Recording a Trlogy of Piano Music for Tzadik Records. Collaborating with bassist Ken Filiano, vocalist Ingrid Sertso (KIK) + guitarist Kenny Wessel (KIKK). The Karl Berger Improvisers Orchestra, completed 75 performances in New York since the Spring of 2011 (see BLOG at www.karlberger.org). New collaboration in Europe with drummer Baby Sommer, bassist Antonio Borghini, guitarist Carsten Radtke, vocalist/poet Ingrid Sertso (DIFFERENT STANDARDS). Collaborating with cornetist Ken Knuffke, violinist Jason Hwang, saxophonists Ivo Perelman, Peter Apfelbaum, Mercedes Figueras, drummers Harvey Sorgen, Tani Tabbal, Warren Smith, Tyshawn Sorey. bassists Joe Fonda, Mark Helias, Max Johnson, William Parker, trumpeter Steven Bernstein and others for recordings and performances. 

1. Thollem / Berger 1

2. Thollem / Berger 2

3. Thollem / Berger 3

Karl Berger, Vibraphones

Thollem, Piano

Recorded and mixed by Karl Berger at his studio in Kingston, NY, December, 2019

Edited by Thollem

Mastered by Drake Hardin

PRE-ORDER

Thollem / Avreeayl Ra / Matt Lux - Thollem's Astral Traveling Sessions (2021 Astral Spirits)

Thanks to Josh Berman, Mike Reed and Hungry Brain for hosting us as part of the Sunday Night Jazz and Improvised Music Series and the lovely audience that came out for it. This was the first time Avreeayl and I played together. Matt and I had played a bit previously.

“WARNING! This album truly needs a warning label, because the music you’re about to hear is at a level of dangerous intensity. I remember this concert well. The sun had already set on that brisk Chicago evening, and people were starting to make their way to the Hungry Brain. My brain was certainly very hungry. I came in thinking I might need a coffee, but upon hearing a few minutes of the trio’s quick sound check, I realized all the energizing power I needed was about to be given to me by these three improvisational monsters! Absolute creative masterminds! Hearing Thollem play is quite the experience on its own, but the addition of Matthew Lux and Avreeayl Ra was something of a whole new category. Each of these creators pushed each other in new directions and new heights, each knew exactly when to let it all out, and when to play as softly as possible; when to start a new piece, and when to let it ride. I am so thankful that evening was captured for posterity. Listeners will be wrapping their minds around this for centuries to come." - Matt Scutchfield

Chicago master drummer / percussionist AVREEAYL RA was born in Chicago on May 21st, 1947 and still lives there today. He is a renowned musician always in demand among visiting jazz artists in Chicago. Avreeayl’s father, Arthur “Swinglee” O’Neil, was a tenor saxophonist who was mentor to many young Chicago musicians, including John Gilmore, later the mainstay of Sun Ra’s Arkestra. (Avreeayl reports that John Gilmore had a crush on Avreeayl’s sister and so spent as much time as he could at the family house.) Swinglee O’Neil played in one of Sun Ra’s early Chicago bands, and Sun Ra played in one of Swinglee’s groups as well.Avreeayl is a long-term member of the Chicago AACM, his relationship with the seminal music organization having begun with early studies with AACM co-founder Kelan Philip Cohran. Avreeayl has performed and / or recorded with Fred Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Fontella Bass, Lester Bowie, Ari Brown, Oscar Brown, Jr., Henry Butler, Henry Byrd (”Professor Longhair”), Hamid Drake, Malachi Favors, Donald Raphael Garrett, Charles Gayle, Henry Grimes, Billy Harper, Joseph Jarman, Edward “Kidd” Jordan, Nicole Mitchell, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Malachi Thompson, and many more.Avreeayl considers himself greatly blessed to have come up in the richly progressive Chicago “avant-garde” jazz community. Though he has lived briefly in New Orleans and New York and has toured widely in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Far East, and Africa, he has always returned home to live in Chicago.

Matthew Lux (1973, Chicago) Known primarily from group Isotope 217, Iron & Wine, and his association with Rob Mazurek’s various ensembles. Performing and recording with musicians such as - Peven Everett, Bill Callahan, Pharoah Sanders, Nobukazu Takemura, George Freeman and Eddie Kirkland over his 30 year career. His first release as a leader, Contra/Fact came out in 2018 on Astral Spirits. 

1. Thollem / Lux / Ra 1 25:34

2. Thollem / Lux / Ra 2 16:53

Avreeayl Ra, Drums

Matt Lux, Bass

Thollem, Piano

Live concert recording September 14th, 2019 at the Hungry Brain Chicago, IL

Edited by Thollem

Mastered by Drake Hardin

Cover Art by ACVilla

Pre-order