RON THOMAS: Cycles

Ron Thomas

Cycles

© 2006 Ron Thomas (659691002123)

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Improvisational electric-acoustic Music, freely based on jazz, electronic and experimental classical.

notes

"Cycles"

Ron Thomas - Keyboard Synthesizer

John Swana - EVI Synthesizer

Joe Mullen - Percussion

Vectordisc 006 & 007

2 CD Set
Recorded by Glenn Ferracone
at The Music Centre, Exton, PA
June 17, 2003 and October 12, 2004

Mastered by Paul G. Kohler

Produced by Richard Burton


Cycles is a collection of 11 feature
length tone poems, cinematic landscapes
and quasi-mystical soundscapes. John Swana
and Ron Thomas (synthesizer sounds) and
Joe Mullen (percussion)create everything
from tiny microscopic events to swirling
masses of raging mountainous ostinatos.
The resulting music is more like drama
and cinema(characters, psychologies,
plots, narratives) than just "listening
to" music. Essential to the presentation
of course is the excellent soundscape
recording techniques of recording engineer
Glenn Ferracone. Several trial sessions
preceded the pieces released here and
other projects are ahead for this group
including performances and future recordings.

Ron Thomas

John Cage was always a great source of joy
and refreshment for me. I visited him once or
twice a year. We drank strong Japanese tea
together, and I would just let him talk about
whatever he was into at the moment: Satie,
Thoreau, Nanotechnology. We had some great
discussions.
I think it is helpful to remember that John
was a Buddhist and also was very interested
in technology. He really was trying to change
the way both artists and the public thought
about art. And him succeeded.

Ron Thomas

I discovered the music of Karlheinz
Stockhausen around 1958 or 1959 through the
Robert Craft recording of Zeitmasse wind
quintet. After I graduated from the Manhattan
School of Music, I learned that Stockhausen
was going to be in Philadelphia in the spring
of 1964. I appeared in his class at the
University of Pennsylvania. He was substituting
for George Rochberg for the semester. I latched
myself onto him, told him, I sold everything I
had to come here! Ah, a true artist, he said.
He was a young man still - 36, and I was 24.
He gave me a direct insight into post-World
War II musical thinking in Europe. I absolutely
adored him. But he was also way too much of a
blinding light in a way. I needed to recover
from him-a bit too charismatic.
He gave music new forms of expression, new
feelings. Miles Davis called it bettering the
forms of music. Berlioz called it endowing the
music with new actions.

Ron Thomas

Ron Thomas can be heard on other Vectordisc
recordings as a leader (Scenes from a Voyage
to Arcturus, The House of Counted Days with
John Swana, Tony Marino and Joe Mullen, 17 Solo
Piano Improvisations, Elysium and Wings of the
Morning). Ron also appears as on the following
Vectordisc recordings The Mike Falcone Quartet's
"Playing Live", Richard Burton's "Simple Major
Simple Minor" and Kristin Garson's "Music Under
the Influence".
Ron has other CDs as a leader (Music in
Three Parts, Blues for Zarathustra and Doloroso)
on Art of Life Records. He also appears on Pat
Martino's "Live" and Eric Kloss's "One, Two, Free".

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