Following the release of a globe-spanning collaborative 25 album series titled Thollem's Astral Traveling Sessions (reviewed in The Wire 453) – which featured contributions from artists such as Raven Chacon, Susan Alcorn, Hafez Modirzadeh, and many more – the nomadic US musician Thollem McDonas recently presented his latest solo album Obstacle Illusion. The album features recordings from recent live solo performances with the Korg Wavestate synthesiser, which Thollem says he plays with the aim of “recontextualising sound”.

Thollem continues to tour with this minimal setup, now with the added component of live visuals by New Mexican Chicana artist ACVilla. Here, the keyboardist shares footage from a recent show at Albuquerque Guild Cinema in March 2022 and explains a little about the audiovisual collaborative pairing below:

“Obstacle Illusion is a kaleidoscope of sounds layered upon each other, all created in real time,” says Thollem over email. “ACVilla's technique matches with my musical approach because she is also layering images in real time. Working in an analogue manner with digital equipment, she creates optical illusions by projecting footage she's taken along our tour onto the interiors of old adobe abodes in northern New Mexico.”

“There's a continuous sense that things aren't quite right but are still beautiful and intriguing,” he continues. “It's a similar quality that I'm after with my approach with the Wavestate. We're both interested in recontextualising sounds and images and therefore challenging our preconceptions about life and our relationship with the world.”

Read Daniel Spicer's review of Thollem's 25 album series Thollem's Astral Traveling Sessions in The Wire 453. Subscribers can also read the article online via the digital magazine archive. Obstacle Illusion is released by Astral Spirits.