Darian Donovan Thomas

ROUNDUP: Wow NY Times too?!? 🥹💐 1. My @akustikhanelivesessions solo set is fully up on YouTube - enjoy four songs from my upcoming album (and an interview 👀) in an early solo form!! This first one is Volver Volver. I realized recently this song not only reminds me of lost loves, but also makes me kindof homesick 2. Love getting texts like these 😅 so SURPRISE I was in the New York Times today?!! 3. Mr. & Mr. Married. It’s hard being a romantic with a highly skilled and viscously trained overactive imagination. Oh the lifetimes of marriage I’ve dreamed… 4. Obliquely related: let us all LOVE AND CELEBRATE @adamtendler one of my first friends when I got to nyc, and an early inspiration. Through Adam’s handling of my work I’ve learned how to let go and give way to performers. Thank you for being someone I could trust in this specific way 💐 5. Last page from my score for Adam’s Inheritances Project: “we don’t need to tend this garden. they’re wildflowers” 6. Made that final page - and that whole piece - as a Safe Space. Composing that piece helped knock some things loose that led me to eventually writing this song: Safe Space. 7. MY COMPOSITIONAL safe Space practice being written about in the @nytimes 🥹🥹🥹 come see this in practice performed by Adam March 11 at @92ndstreety (thanks to the amazing @liquidmusicseries ) 8. I research this practice further in my compositions for the @a24 @everythingeverywheremovie Song Reader. There’s really no better context than the universe of this film to explore these ideas of safety and self honesty… such an honor and privilege. Thank you @son_lux for trusting me 💐 9. Snow Storm. A song of self awareness and questioning. Not everything is healing and not everything is safe - that’s the beauty of it all. 10. Photo after we finished filming this set. I remember thinking “oh. I’m glad I didn’t feign sickness and not show up. This might be… really beautiful. Maybe people will connect with it. And now I have these amazing Turkish friends… haha” Sometimes there’s a lot happening - and sometimes everything’s background. I’m always overjoyed to share with y’all though. It also helped make things real to me.

GRAMMY THINGS Hi so like wow a piece I composed (with electronics by @ianyhchang ) for @jenniferkohmusic is IN THE ALBUM THAT JUST WON #BESTCLASSICALINSTRUMENTALSOLO AT @recordingacademy GRAMMY’S AND OF COURSE @aroojaftabmusic JUST WON #BESTGLOBALMUSICPERFORMANCE (Still waiting to hear about #BestNewArtist 👀👀) I’m resting today but like WOW FCKNG CONGRATS AROOJ AND JENNY AND EVERYONE INVOLVED 😭😭😭 I’m feeling such a GOOD tired rn - and like everything is actually being acknowledged. Wild. It’s insane that the things I’m doing in both worlds - “capital C #Classical” and like “non-classical” are being celebrated. A wild ride of affirmations as of late 🦋💐🌱🌻💖🌟🌸 Photo from @bam_brooklyn from one of the most iconic shows in recent history performed by @moses of course - pic by @efaefaefa

1. TINYDESK WITH @aroojaftabmusic AAAAAAA 2. #Blackalachia FILM BY @MOSES AAAAAA ALL OUT NOW - ALL IN MY LINK TREE WATCH CELEBRATE BE MERRY YESSSSS #tinydesk #mosessumney

“- and I used to think I sucked at this but now with all the practice I think I’m getting better” Flirting - second single from my album - is out now. Full album out in August 🔪🪻🫂🪻🔪 Who knows small rooms in Europe I can come play in this September? 👀

As Darian Donovan Thomas releases "Flirting" today, his second single from ARWMD, he shares how he's gone "through yet another door of heartbreak, and will leave through a door marked Joy.” A Room With Many Doors (August 2nd, 2024) is a dizzying, kaleidoscopic, and epic narrative journey of self discovery that meets the listener at the end of a series of “experiments in heartbreak”. The songs on ARWMD explore questions of introspection (“what do we want to return to? Do we want to return to one person in particular, or do we want to return to an older version of self? A more stable self?”) from multiple angles. Darian's virtuosic sense of scale and texture, as well as his lyrical vulnerability make ARWMD a record that invites multiple listens and explorations. He is joined by an impressive cast of collaborators including: Alfredo Colón, Ben Chapoteau-Katz, Kalia Vandever, Taja Cheek (L’Rain), and Phong Tran. Listen to "Flirting" by @darian.donovan.thomas at the link in our profile. #newamrecords #dariandonovanthomas #ARWMD #FLIRTING

Following last year’s creative residency at the Olana State Historic Site hosted by the Olana Partnership, which included free public performances, community engagement, and on-site film production, the components of Unfolding Olana will be edited and ‘assembled’ during a residency at the Pocantico Center in Tarrytown NY, culminating in a work-in-process media-performance at Pocantico’s David Rockefeller Arts Center on August 8, 2024, at 7pm. This program will include two dance/media works from S-SD’s existing repertory, followed by the 30-minute work-in-process presentation of Unfolding Olana. Unfolding Olana will feature commissioned new music by composers Darian Donovan Thomas and Phong Tran. The performance will be followed by a discussion and audience Q&A with the creative team, and a reception. Presented in partnership with the RBF’s Culpeper Arts & Culture program. Dancers featured ( promo clip ) : @iamdandaraveiga @jaqlinmedlock Music ( promo clip ) : @darian.donovan.thomas SAVE-THE-DATE August 8, 2024 7pm Work-in-Process Performance David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center Tarrytown, NY LIVE DANCE. LIVE MUSIC. MEDIA

Two things: 1. There will be vinyl for my upcoming album. My first vinyl ever - and we’re not making a lot of them so grab yours soon 👀 The presale link is in my bio 🪻 2. I’m playing at @caramoor this Sunday, June 9th! I’ll be joined by @haldeman and @kalia.vandever , as well as letting a soundscape play in one of the gardens on campus. Soundscape goes from noon-4pm, and our trio set will be from 2:45-3:30! This will be my first time doing my SafeSpace set as a trio, so if you come you get honest access to our mutual discovery. I’m including pics on how to get there from the city - make a day trip of it 🪻🪻🪻 Photo: @oscarmorenophoto Album art: @phongs_pc See you soon 🍉🪻🫂🪻🍉

@darian.donovan.thomas_ !!re!!_039; upcoming record, A Room With Many Doors, picks up at the end of heartbreak and the beginning of self-assessment. Darian explains, “I’m trying to make a place for myself where I can be honest with myself (safe space), while remembering where I come from, and the people that have been around me. This place started as family, and through time became the friends I made throughout my career. We get into these different heartbreaks – different things that at the time seemed world ending, but now are laughable — and ask ourselves, "What actually hurt?"" Learn more at the link in our bio. #newamrecords #ARWMD #dariandonovanthomas #newam

I don’t know if this is a time for poetry. I don’t know how to do my purpose correctly in the face of the Palestinian genocide, nor the atrocities happening around the world in all this political chaos. All I know is that I create, and share information, and discuss, and march, and create, and love, and argue, and get enraged, and meet friends at protests, and work, and have heartbreak - Personal heartbreak. Global heartbreak. None of it is equivalent, but it is all simultaneous - And I create. And above all: try to give. The lead single from “A Room With Many Doors: Night”, my debut album, comes out today. I started created and tending to it two years ago, and it begins blooming now. I want to give it to you. I hope it brings you whatever you need as we figure out our next steps for a free Palestine. A free Congo. A free Sudan. There’s so much to know and so much to do - it’s difficult, and I believe in us. This song has been there for me in heavy times. Now this song is here for you when you need it. From our swords let flowers bloom. Trombone solo: @kalia.vandever Album Art: @phongs_pc Mastered by @angelhairaudio ( @fire_toolz ) Label: @newamrecords Photography: @oscarmorenophoto MUA: @ivannanana23 Stylist/Wardrobe and Ancestral Machete Contribution: @kiri_elle_tee Gown: @goldenskyy777 Extra knives: @jaimirez @angel.pdf

@darian.donovan.thomas (he/him), the composer, multi-instrumentalist, and interdisciplinary artist, announced his debut album, A Room With Many Doors: Night (August 2, 2024). It is a collection of songs that morph between hyperpop, noise, and ambient palettes to be released via New Amsterdam Records.  The news comes accompanied by the single, "Volver, Volver" — a textural, synth-drenched, and ambient reimagining of the classic Mexican ranchera by Fernando Maldonado — featuring a yearning trombone solo by the Grammy Award-winning Kalia Vandever. “Think of the person you have loved the most and lost. Imagine you are calling to them.” He shares, “I don’t know if this is a time for poetry. I don’t know how to do my purpose correctly in the face of the Palestinian genocide or the atrocities happening around the world in all this political chaos.  All I know is that I create, share information, discuss, march, create, love, argue, get enraged, meet friends at protests, work, and have heartbreak - Personal heartbreak. Global heartbreak. None of it is equivalent, but it is all simultaneous -  And I create. And above all: try to give.  I started creating and tending to something two years ago, and it's blooming now.  I want to give it to you.  I hope it brings you whatever you need as we figure out our next steps for a free Palestine.  A free Congo.  A free Sudan.  There’s so much to know and to do - it’s difficult. I believe in us.  This song has been there for me in heavy times.  Now, this song is here for you when you need it.  From our swords, let flowers bloom." - Darian Donovan Thomas  Listen to “Volver, Volver” by checking out the links in our profile.

Hi hi - I’m in Texas till Wednesday and prepping for a 📸shoot and ALSO SURPRISE thanks to @notnotrahm I’m on a small part of the new @vincestaples album?!?!?!? Love being in the presence of @kiahvictoria and James Baldwin for this one 🥹 Let me know when you get to this interlude - and thanks Rahm for trusting me to add flutters to your work 🪻🫂🪻

@darian.donovan.thomas x @guggenheim x @worksandprocess