Pat Thomas
Hikmah
Hikmah is the astonishing new solo piano work from Pat Thomas - virtuosic sound scientist, deep and compassionate thinker, and UK-based musical treasure. A singular album in his now substantial body of work, it marks his first release for TAO Forms. Born in Oxford to Antiguan parents on July 27, 1960, Thomas belongs to a remarkable generation of piano masters. Just over four months separate his birth from that of Matthew Shipp (December 7, 1960) - whose The Piano Equation inaugurated the TAO For…
Dark Days
Stirring with poetic force, Dark Days by Neil Charles sets the bass as both anchor and insurrection, channeling the spirit of James Baldwin into a contemporary jazz crucible. Here, searing improvisation and taut spoken word entwine, yielding an album that radiates both urgency and gravitas.
Reality Is Not a Theory
Reality Is Not a Theory by Mark Fell and Pat Thomas is a vivid collaboration exploring the friction between theorized structure and lived musical experience. By fusing Fell’s technologically limited triggers for creativity with Thomas’s exploratory improvisation, the album reimagines not only electronic and jazz vocabularies but also notions of time and agency, rendering a shifting landscape where each moment is both calculated and unexpected.
The Bliss of Bliss
With The Bliss of Bliss, Pat Thomas distills four decades of radical pianism into a transcendent live improvisation. Recorded in Geneva in 2024, the album transforms the solo piano into a realm of shifting densities and ecstatic form, where each note seems to create and erase the space it inhabits.
A Mountain Sees a Mountain
A Mountain Sees a Mountain, the new duo recording by Hamid Drake and Pat Thomas, captures two master improvisers engaged in an intimate yet expansive dialogue. Released in October 2025 via Old Heaven Books, the album bridges African rhythmic philosophy and European avant-piano traditions, achieving a deep equilibrium between motion, meditation, and melodic abstraction.
Wadud (Most Loving)
*300 coipies limited edition* This very special and wonderful solo performance by Oxford based Pat Thomas was recorded in Dublin during the first ever Reception Weekend event at the Complex. The piano Pat was playing had been very unique as it had copper plating on the interior giving the piano and strange and magical resonance. Nyahh Records is very grateful and excited to be able to share this performance with the world and to have Pat Thomas added to our list of artists.
Pat Thomas (b1960) s…
Lifeline
Pat Thomas, Tony Orrell, and Dominic Lash, known as Bleyschool, here perform as Lifeline, swapping acoustic for electric instruments in a spontaneous blend of noise, dance, and rock—exploring new sounds while maintaining deep musical rapport.
Ecliptic
Shifa is a name taken from the Arabic word for healing, شفاء. The trio's members are three of the UK's most experienced and in-demand improvising musicians.
Shifa - Live In Oslo
*2024 stock* ‘Live in Oslo’ is the sophomore album from Shifa, the outstanding UK trio featuring pianist extraordinaire Pat Thomas, celebrated saxophonist Rachel Musson, and sonic transcendent drummer Mark Sanders. The group derives its name from the Arabic word for healing and the music they make aspires to do just that.
This album follows their acclaimed, Downbeat 4-star debut ‘Shifa Live at Cafe Oto’. Listen to ‘Shifa Live in Oslo’ and discover contemporary master musicians celebrating the mo…
Volume 1
*Limited Edition of 100. Pink Vinyl! 2024 stock* Super groups are not a riskless endeavor—but when they’re made up of longtime friends and master improvisers, they tend to work. On their collaboration, simply titled Volume 1, up-and-coming American saxophonist John Dikeman (When The Time Is Right, 577 Records, 2021) is accompanied by a group of UK-based music masters: pianist Pat Thomas, a 577 Records mainstay (Shifa Live at Cafe Oto 2019, BleySchool 2019, Shifa Live in Oslo 2020, Educated Guess…
Fathom
*200 copies limited edition. 2024 stock* On Fathom, we hear the sound of the world mirrored back to us. An improvisational collaboration from legendary British multi-instrumentalist John Butcher, Pat Thomas on piano, Dominic Lash on Double Bass, and Steve Noble on Drums, the four artists play generously together. Fathom is an impressive work of avant-garde jazz that’s reminiscent of the non-musical world: squeaky wheels, growing tension, a babbling brook, all winding into lush harmonies. This ma…
Unlockings
John Butcher is interested in particular people and their personalities. He prefers not to work in a generic situation, where there's an agreement in advance to play a certain kind of thing, and the music cannot swerve in a sudden fresh direction.
As he told me a few years back: "What got me so interested in the type of improvising I ended up really spending time on was, at least at a personal level, there was a feeling you could start from scratch. Now you might well be mistaken, and rediscover…
Lower Marsh
The record can be considered a sort of farewell note to one of London’s most crucial venues for improvised music and sound art after its unexpected closure in late 2023 due to gentrification. John Butcher had previously collaborated with these three musicians in different contexts, but Unlockings documents a first-of-its-kind quartet line-up.
"I wanted a new combination, but made of players I’d worked with over the years" says Butcher. "Choosing is probably 75 % about the player and 25 % about t…
Bleyschool: Where?
UK piano maestro Pat Thomas is back with his project BleySchool. This is the project’s second album. Music inspired by Paul Bley.
This Is Trick Step
It’s almost here! Genius UK improviser Pat Thomas is about to debut his first-ever 577 Records solo album – and abstract hip hop has never sounded so good! The much-anticipated ten-track This is Trick Step flawlessly showcases the artist’s distinguished approach to modern music. It immerses us in an almost 3D listening experience that creatively melds texture, depth, and mental stimulation.
“Imagine an Alternative Universe where JDilla and Morton Feldman collaborate: this is the result,” Pat …
Plays The Music Of Derek Bailey & Thelonious Monk
The Derek Bailey transcription were performed at the Holywell music room in October 2005 as part of a concert organised by Fran Ryan, who wanted to hear me playpiano in a more composed setting. I agreed to play music based on Derek Bailey’s early recordings and brilliantly transcribed by Chris Burn, which he had sent me, I was inter-ested in the challenge and the obvious contradiction of performing free improvisationsas compostions, especially Derek’s, knowing his view on the use of transcriptio…
The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir
Pat Thomas returns to Otoroku for his fourth collection of solo piano improvisations, this time recorded in a studio setting at London’s Fish Factory.
Educated Guess Vol. 1
2024 stock. Dave Tucker says that he brought this disparate group of musicians together for a live performance at London’s Cafe Oto last March on “an educated guess,” predicting that the artists - Mark Sanders (Drums & Percussion), Pat Thomas (Piano & Keys), Dave Tucker (Guitar) and Thurston Moore (Guitar) - would be able to create something extraordinary through improvisation. The condition of their encounter would later become the collective’s name, an “Educated Guess” and the eponymous title …
Maua
“A blissfully ecstatic sprawl of spiritual-jazz explorations of the most transcendent order” – Brooklyn Rail
Shifa - Live At Cafe Oto
2024 stock. Shifa, from the Arabic word for healing, is a new trio born out of old musical partnerships from the ever-shifting sands of the UK improvised music scene. Pat Thomas, pianist extraordinaire whose eclectic motherboard pushes the music in unexpected twists and turns, suggested the name. The healing, in this case, is a raw, unfettered musical space where he, saxophonist Rachel Musson and drummer Mark Sanders meet and make music in the moment, of the moment. Each player values the others…