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Fred Thomas
Fred Thomas is one of London’s most sought after multi-instrumentalists and composer/arranger/producers, known for his breadth of musical styles as well as for specialising in creative re-interpretations of J.S. Bach.
Thomas has collaborated with a huge variety of artists worldwide including Brian Eno, Yo-Yo Ma, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Jordi Savall, Meredith Monk, Jarvis Cocker, Rachel Podger, Elizabeth Kenny, Ethan Iverson, Larry Grenadier, Benoît Delbecq, Kit Downes, Tamara Stefanovich, Abel Salaocoe, Leo Abrahams, Kadialy Kouyate and Olivia Chaney. He has released a large discography of albums across various genres, particularly classical and jazz, and is published by Spartan Press and Edition Wilhelm Hansen.
Having started to play classical piano at the age of five, Thomas went on to study jazz piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, where he developed an interest in rhythmic cultures from Africa and Latin America, free improvisation, contemporary classical, improvised counterpoint and Baroque music, in particular Bach. He works regularly as Musical Director with the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe and teaches at Trinity Laban Conservatoire.
Thomas’s first appearance on ECM Records came in 2020 as pianist/drummer on Elina Duni’s “Lost Ships”, together with Rob Luft and Mathieu Michel. His subsequent ECM album and debut as leader comes on the New Series label with “Three or One”, 24 pieces by Bach transcribed for trio and solo piano by Thomas himself, featuring cellist Lucy Railton and violinist Aisha Orazbayeva, released in October 2021.
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Elina Duni: A Time to Remember
by Chris May
Someone once described Leonard Cohen's music as “uplifting in a peculiarly depressing way." The music of singer Elina Duni and guitarist Rob Luft is not depressing, though it certainly is uplifting. It is, however, full of tristesse, of sadness for things that are lost, be they people or places. This feeling goes deeper than mere nostalgia. Listening to A Time To Remember and its predecessors, Duni and Luft's Lost Ships (ECM, 2020) and Duni's Partir (ECM, 2018), ...
read moreElina Duni / Rob Luft: Lost Ships
by Chris May
Released just in time to make the Best Albums of 2020 lists, the Albanian-Swiss singer Elina Duni and the British guitarist Rob Luft's Lost Ships is an exquisitely beautiful, emotionally complex, words and music masterpiece from two of the most distinctive talents on the European scene. Passionate and grave, serene and desolate, it is a kind of sequel to Duni's acclaimed 2018 ECM debut, Partir. Partir explored the humanitarian crisis which was then (as now) sweeping across Europe ...
read more"Fred Thomas is a highly original talent" - Chris Parker
"The audience had already been eased into receptivity for subtle nuances by the delicate piano improvising...of Fred Thomas" - John Fordham, The Guardian
"The Fred Thomas Trio captures the imagination of the listener with hypnotic soundscapes, whilst challenging boundaries and traditional roles of the instruments within the genres of improvised music and contemporary composition. Most importantly though, it's beautiful music." - Gerard Presencer
"most ear-opening of all, pianist Fred Thomas...providing an inexhaustible range of touch and colour" - Chris Morley, Birmingham Post
"first-class double-bass/pianist" - Charlie Gillett's Sound of the World
"Fred Thomas plays with a strutting, brooding tension" - Chris Morley, Birmingham Post
"very impressionistic" - Ian Lace, Music Web
"a highly cultured double-bassist/pianist" - elcorreodigital
About 'Repose':
“'Repose' is the debut CD of Jiri Slavik's music with the fine pianist Fred Thomas who, together, are in sync with a clear multiple vision of sonic beauty.”
- Mark Dresser
"this is music requiring patience and application, but it is rich and original enough to reward both" - Chris Parker
"There is a sense of spontaneity and originality which runs through this album" - Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
About Magic Lantern:
"Pretty special i think you'll agree" - Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music
"Some of the lovliest music i have heard this year" - The Stool Pidgeon
"Warmly recommended, especially to anyone who thinks meaningful eccentricity and sheer originality are rare commodities in contemporary music" - Chris Parker, The Vortex
"Quirky and charming" - Timeout
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A Time to Remember
From: A Time to RememberBy Fred Thomas
