Making their US debut as duo, Pat Thomas (piano and electronics) and Mariam Rezaei (turntables) are radical composers unbound by genre. Informed by jazz, free improvisation, dub, footwork, avant-garde electronics, noise and chamber music, they create a new kind of electro-acoustic music.

One of the greatest pianists the UK has produced, Thomas is fluent in the languages of jazz, modern composition, funk, reggae and calypso. His style can range from thunderous clusters and angular vamps to radiant lyricism and delicate inside piano explorations. As an electronic musician, Thomas has fused drum ‘n bass with Webern and P-Funk (1997’s New Jazz Jungle: Remembering), crossed J Dilla with Morton Feldman (2024’s This Is Trick Step) and created a wildly inventive series of albums using IRCAM’s Time Stretch programme.

Using specially prepared samples, Rezaei will employ a range of techniques, including free juggling, turntable sines (controlling sine waves using the pitch slider), needle dripping and needle weaving - two new methods she debuted on FRACTURED. The former involves composing music made specifically for needle dropping on multiple decks at once. The latter is a way of using a digital vinyl system to loop music live using two decks, with nothing predetermined.

Rezaei and Thomas will make their first duo performance in a private concert at Oxford University in January 2025. In November 2022, Rezaei played two concerts as a guest of Black Top, Thomas’s duo with Orphy Robinson. Earlier that year, she performed a Thomas composition/conduction alongside Mopcut, Yeah You, Bohman Brothers, Petronn Sphene and Odie J Ghast.

Presented in partnership with the Frequency Festival.

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