Thollem-A Day In The Leap; Acousmatique Records, 2020

 

Despite the Cancellation of Culture, musicians gonna music. Take for example 2020's release from keyboard master Thollem, A Day In The Leap. What can be found here is a set of five pieces, all of them recorded during one session on one day. Thollem essentially plays in duo with a Korg Wavestate, pairing this agile synthesizer with his own acoustic piano agility. 

The resultant sounds are an amazing blend of musical zones. Disaster Amnesiac has heard all manner of vibes from the Experimental Music dynamic. Free Improvisation, Modern Composition, Library Synth sounds, Beat Science....they all tumble and mix together within the improvised matrix of Leap's music. 

What's really enjoyable about this dynamic is the juicy way in which Thollem and the Korg interact. It's often tough to tell which sound is from the fingertips of the human and which is emanating from within the patches of the Korg. Percussive sounds clang up against melodic bursts. Silences are broken with keyboard runs and then embellished by cool electronic tones. Strange, squiggling colors march aside piano arpeggio. Computer beats slink up against melodic leaps. All the while, the listener continues to guess as to "who" is doing "what". That being said, Disaster Amnesiac finds Leap to be more than a simple exercise. Thollem's musical mind and action assures and provides attentive listening with fun and fascinating, enjoyable music. Music enhanced by tech, but not steamrolled by it.

Surely by this time there have already been this type of collaboration between "man" and "machine". The thing about Thollem's A Day In The Leap that Disaster Amnesiac loves is the way in which the former aspect takes precedence over the latter. That is, after all, kind of the point of this whole musical pursuit anyway, right?

Hopefully Thollem will be able to get back to his busy touring schedule soon, and that perhaps he can bring a piano/Korg set to someplace close to Disaster Amnesiac. This music would be so fun to hear in a live setting.