Thollem McDonas has been traveling perpetually these past six years, as a soloist and also as a collaborator with artists Pauline Oliveros, Nels Cline, William Parker, Mike Watt, and the late Italian master contrabassist Stefano Scodanibbio among many more. Signal To Noise describes his music like a "supercollider centrifuge of innumerable disasters, a churning black caldera bespattered with beautiful madness. It seems beyond the capacity of one human being to contain so much densely-packed creative energy".
On the 13th at Easy Lemon Loft, Thollem will be taking everyone on an adventure known as Thollem Sworld. Asked about the ride, he explains that “Thollem Sworld is the result my experiences as a musician traveling perpetually and playing internationally for years. Absorbing approaches to the musics of a wide variety of cultures, I spin them outwards in new and unusual musical free associations. My compositions, both premeditated and spontaneous, contain nuances and collisions from my studies of 350 years of keyboard musics, Gamelan, West African Drumming, Persian, Karnatac, Chinese, punk and Native American musics and those I ?nd in the ever-changing environments I experience.”
About Thollem's work, Terry Riley notes that Thollem ”inhabits a world uniquely his own, rhythmically, harmonically and formally. A true original.”
Along with the famous recording On Debussy's Piano And... with Stefano Scodanibbio, Thollem will have three newly-released recordings: The Gowanus Session, from Porter Records, with legendary bass player William Parker, and Nels Cline. You Are Always on Our Minds, from Post-Consumer, is a quartet with Mike Watt (Minutemen), John Dieterich (Deerhoof) and Tim Barnes (Silver Jews). Polishing The Mirror, from Amirani, features the trio Magimc - with Edoardo Marraffa (sax) and Stefano Giust (drums).
Asked about his ever-diverse music, Thollem observes, “I make music that I hope stimulates the mind and the body, that's intellectual and sexy and meditative and ferocious and poetic and athletic and revolutionary and spiritual and political and loving and that will shake people awake, starting with me ?rst.”