The ever-enigmatic keyboardist Thollem McDonas is busy adding twenty-five albums to his catalog for 2021, each release deepening the mysticism of this highly adventurous musician. His Astral Traveling Sessions collaborative improvisation series (Astral Spirits Records) has of this writing seen him off to a good start toward that goal, and we stopped to offer up an assessment of his sitting with a kindred spirit, Deerhoof guitarist John Dieterich. Thollem’s encounters with drummer Alex Cline and pedal steel outlaw Susan Alcorn deserve a closer study, too.
Truth be told, this is really two distinct albums we’re discussing here. The first is a thirty-eight-minute recording of Thollem paired with Cline, recorded in the pristine environs of MLK, Jr. Auditorium located within the Santa Monica library. Thollem is on piano, and after an inauspicious start, the two get going like Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley used to do, later downshifting back to that (relatively) hushed feel. But Thollem is constantly probing and Cline is a great listener who can practically predict what Mr. McDonas is going to play next and adjust accordingly. They go back and forth between parched sparsity and thundering density, making either side compelling to listen to. Thollem builds up tension slowly and releases slowly with the touch of a celebrated classical pianist, but roaming with total freedom.
The set with Alcorn was taped at Alcorn’s home, with five discreet parcels of improvisation. Thollem isn’t on piano this time; he’s got his trusty Waldorf Blofeld synthesizer on hand for this session. And honestly, this is the implement you want to go against a pedal steel guitar, leastwise, the way Alcorn plays it.
Thollem plays dreamlike on the watery first track; well, Alcorn can do that, so she blends in just fine. “Thollem/Susan Alcorn 02” moves mysteriously, and at times the pedal steel and synthesizer sound as one. Retro sci-fi is the sort of sounds emitted over “Thollem/Susan Alcorn 03,” even the pedal steel sound is strangely warped.
On the next track, Thollem’s distorted buzzes is set against the backdrop of Alcorn’s distantly dissonant murmurs. For “Thollem/Susan Alcorn 05,” Thollem makes the Blofeld resemble a Sunday morning organ in the Church of the LSD, and Alcorn is later heard shadowing Thollem’s moves on the synth with telepathic accuracy.
Wherever Thollem travels during an Astral Traveling Sessions jaunt, it’s a journey into the vast unknown areas of music that few dare to venture. But Thollem, he lives there.
You can acquire Thollem’s Astral Traveling Sessions with Alex Cline and Susan Alcorn right now from Bandcamp here (Alex Cline) and here (Susan Alcorn).
