Pat Thomas

Shock Troops was a group of improvisers, namely Thomas, Geoff Serle (drum machine, sampler, electronics), John McCullough (bass), Peter McPhail (electronic wind instrument), Richard Chapman (guitar) and Neil Palmer (turntables), documented on Central Dada Time (recorded in 1997 but released only in 2018).

The WTTF Quartet was Thomas, double bassist Alexander Frangenheim, violinist Philipp Wachsmann and percussionist Roger Turner. They recorded Gateway '97 (july 1997), released only in 2013, and later WTTF Quartet Berlin Kinesis (august 2014).

Nur (dec 1999) was an album of lengthy solo piano improvisations, and 3 Pianos (2001) was a collaboration with pianists Steve Beresford and Veryan Weston.

Lunge was an improvising quartet comprising Gail Brand (trombone), Phil Durrant (electronics and acoustic violin) and Mark Sanders (percussion) that released Braced & Framed (1999) and Strong Language (2002).

Powerfield was a trio with Joe Gallivan (Moog synthesizer, electronic percussion) and Gary Smith (electric guitar) that released Electronic Electric Electronic (1999) and Field Recordings (2006).

Second Edition (2000) was credited to Sweethearts In A Drugstore, in which Thomas parterned with Alan Silva (keyboard), Axel Doerner (trumpet), Johannes Bauer (trombone), electronics), Phil Durrant (violin, electronics), Peter Friis Nielsen (bass) and P.O. J rgens (drums, percussion).

Certain Questions (2002) was a collaboration with Charlotte Hug. Zahir (2003), credited to Hiss, was recorded by a quartet with Ivar Grydeland (guitar), Tonny Kluften (bass) and Ingar Zach (percussion).

Scatter (2007) was recorded with Phil Minton, Dave Tucker and Roger Turner. The trio Articles with Mats Gustafsson (saxophone, electronics) and Roger Turner (percussion) released Goodbye Silence (2008). The Mancini Project was a quartet with Simon Fell on doublebass, Han Bennink on drums and Steve Noble on turntables performing the music of Harry Mancini on Views of Mancini (2008). Pat Thomas played piano and synthesizer on Leo Smith's Abbey Road Quartet (august 2008), featuring John Coxon (electric guitar) and Mark Sanders (drums).

In 2009 Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor (on vocals, electric piano, bass, synthesizer and electric guitar), This Heat's drummer Charles Hayward, Spring Heel Jack's John Coxon and Thomas (mostly on synthesizers) formed About Group, which recorded the improvised About (july 2009) and Start And Complete (2011), entirely composed by Taylor. The About Group also released Between the Walls (2013) and Rak (2018).

Al-Khwarizmi Variations (june 2011) was a solo piano album.

The three-disc The Founder Effect III (november 2012) was improvised by Thomas, Steve Noble (drums), John Coxon (electric guitar) and Alan Wilkinson (alto and baritone saxes).

Descent III (february 2013) features Paul Dunmall on tenor & soprano sax, Pat Thomas on piano and Mark Sanders on drums.

Skip (2013) was recorded with Dominic Lash and Mark Sanders. Thomas also played in Evan Parker's ensemble Mopomoso, documented on the four-disc live set Making Rooms (april 2013). He also played on Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker's His Flight's at Ten (march 2016) with bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and drummer Stale Liavik Solberg. He also played on Skullmarks (march 2016), the third album of harpist Rhodri Davies' Common Objects, containing the 37-minute improvisation Skullmarks, featured Lina Lapelyte and Angharad Davies (both on violin), John Butcher (soprano and tenor saxes), Lee Patterson (amplified devices and processes) and Thomas on electronics. The 38-minute suite of Davies' Transversal Time (composed in 2017) was recorded with Ryoko Akama (electronics), Sarah Hughes (zither), Sofia Jernberg (vocals), Pia Palme (contrabass recorder), Adam Parkinson (programming), Lucy Railton (cello), Dafne Vicente-Sandoval (bassoon), and Thomas.

The duo Black Top with vibraphonist Orphy Robinson (also on electronics, marimba, steel pan and trumpet) released #One (2014), #Two (2015) and Free #3 (2018).

Hackney Road (recorded in 2016) was a collaboration with Spring Heel Jack (John Coxon and Ashley Wale), Leo Smith and Steve Noble.

Thomas was a founder of the band Ahmed, a quartet with Antonin Gerbal (drums), Joel Grip (bass) and Seymour Wright (saxophone) devoted to "re-imagining" the music of oud player and double bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik (born Jonathan Tim) on New Jazz Imagination (august 2016), which contains a 41-minute composition heavinly influenced by minimalist repetition (Anxious A plus Anxious B). Ahmed's double-disc Super Majnoon contains a studio recording of march 2018 (the 19-minute E-Lail [The Night] East and the 21-minute Farah Alaiyna (Joy Upon Us)) and a live concert of august 2018, and the digital reissue includes two colossal improvisations (the 39-minute East Meets West Aggregates and the 42-minute El Haris). Ahmed's Nights On Saturn (december 2019) contains another colossal live performance: the 42-minute Nights On Saturn. The 58-minute live improvisation of Wood Blues (april 2022) is a set of variations on the theme of Oud Blues, a four-minute piece off The Music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik (1961) performend by Abdul-Malik on oud, Calo Scott on cello and Andrew Cyrille on drums. Ahmed's five-disc Giant Beauty (august 2022) contains five colossal live improvisations: Nights On Saturn (48:04), Oud Blues (46:32), African Bossa Nova (49:40), Rooh (The Soul) (46:43), El Haris (Anxious) (44:15). The same studio sessions yielded the four pieces of Sama'a/ Audition (february 2025), titled exactly as the four tracks of Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s and tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin's album Jazz Sahara (1959), namely Ya Annas [Oh, People] (18:50), Isma'a [Listen] (14:24), El Haris [Anxious] (16:01) and Farah 'Alaiyna [Joy Upon Us] (18:46), and the double-disc Play Monk (february 2025), devoted to Thelonious Monk's music.

In 2017 saxophonist John Butcher formed Fictional Souvenirs, a trio with Pat Thomas (electronics) and Stale Liavik Solberg (drums), first documented on the live albums Fictional Souvenirs (july 2017) and Volatile Object (january 2023), containing the 24-minute Heat Of Absorption.

Valid Tractor, a trio with Dominic Lash (double bass) and Lawrence Casserley (electronics), debuted with On the Validity of Tractors (2018).

Thomas joined Martin Archer's Anthropology Band, which recorded the sessions (september 2018 and april 2019) of the double-disc Anthropology Band. The Truth (december 2018) contains improvisations with saxophonist Matana Roberts. The piano trio Bley School that released BleySchool (2019) and BleySchool - Where? (2024) were collaborations with Dominic Lash and Tony Orrell. Delirium Atom Paths (march 2020) documents live improvisations with Know (the duo of guitarist Chris Sharkey and drummer Luke Reddin-Williams).

Thomas suffered a stroke in 2020, but his career continued as prolific as ever. He was with the John Butcher + 13, a 13-musician ensemble that recorded Fluid Fixations (november 2021), and in Martin Archer's Forensic Trio, with percussionist Johnny Hunter, that recorded the four improvisations of Heartless (september 2021). He joined virtually the intercontinental Internet-based ensemble Transatlantic Trance Map that recorded Marconi s Drift (december 2022). Collaborations included The Unasked Question (2022) with Mark Browne and Martin Hackett, New Oxford Brevity (2022) with Dominic Lash, Whats Wrong 1-4 (2023) with Caroline Kraabel, and Fathom (2023) with John Butcher, Dominic Lash and Steve Noble,

He started releasing mostly solo albums: Wazifah Volume 1 (february 2023), Burdah Variations (may 2023), Wazifah Volume 2 (september 2023), Wazifah Volume 3 (january 2024), the electronic Kanza al Qalb (may 2024), the solo piano The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir (march 2024), his best of the period, This Is Trick Step (august 2023), Wadud/Most Loving (march 2023), The Bliss Of Bliss (march 2024), Hikmah (september 2024), Sufi Women (june 2025), etc.

The supergroup X-Ray Hex Tet featuring Thomas, Seymour Wright (alto saxophone), Billy Steiger (celeste, violin), Edward George (spoken word, recordings), Paul Abbott (drums) and Crystabel Riley (drums), debuted with X-Ray Hex Tet (2024).

The trio Shifa with saxophonist Rachel Musson and percussionist Mark Sanders debuted on Ecliptic (2025).

Lifeline (2025) documents another collaboration with guitarist Dominic Lash and percussionist Tony Orrell.

The Mythstory School (2025) documents a collaboration with Blacks' Myths (the duo of bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Warren Crudup III).

Pat Thomas led saxophonist Seymour Wright and drummer Paul Abbott in the massive live improvisations of the double-disc Strata Act (june 2022).

A trio with with Olie Brice on double bass and Gary Willcox on drums recorded The Day After (april 2025), containing the 17-minute A Thread Of Silk Can Cut Through Iron.

Other collaborations included: Reality Is Not A Theory (march 2025) with electronic musician Mark Fell, containing a 44-minute live piece; A Mountain Sees A Mountain (Old Heaven Books, 2025) with Hamid Drake; Transgressive Coastlines (Shrike, 2026) with saxophonist Caroline Kraabel, double bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble.

The trio Jump with Andrea Giordano (voice, melodica & electronics) and Maria Dybbroe (alto sax & clarinet) debuted with Of All People (april 2023, june 2023, july 2024), which collects three sessions.