British, Oxford-based, prolific pianist Pat Thomas is a Muslim Sufi who sees music as a spiritual practice, or “as a way to get close to God”, that informs his work with the trios اسم [ISM] and Shifa, or the quartet أحمد [AHMED], dedicated to the music of double bass player Ahmed Abdul-Malik, who played with Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk.
The Bliss of Bliss is Thomas’ solo piano album, continuing a series of free improvised solo piano albums that began with Nur (Emanem, 2001), Al-Khwarizmi Variations (Fataka, 2013), The Elephant Clock of Al-Jazari (OTORoku, 2017), and The Solar Model of Ibn-Shatir (OTORoku, 2024). The titles of the previous albums reflected Thomas’ interest in Islamic traditions
