Sonic and visual artist Thomas Bell was born in upstate New York in 1972 and currently lives and works in New York City and Philadelphia. Recently he has been utilizing the studio atmosphere to put together a new batch of tunes under the name twin:72, and is currently working with Gregg Jarvis and David CasT on a project named Geminii. Beginning with his explorations into music at an early age, Thomas has been involved in the creative arts nearly his entire life. From the age of seven, Thomas has been guided through the world of sound while studying guitar, trumpet, piano, upright and electric bass, sitar, steel pans, & percussion. He studied jazz and improvisation at Berklee College of Music and ethnomusicology at Florida State University.
He is the founder and director of Oxygen Music Collective (OMC) which includes numerous musical groups under his direction: Oxygen Ensemble, Pi, "gravity", Toxic Funk, Grunk?, SSJ, & The Mold Project. While living in Seattle (98 - 03), Thomas organized and curated, Oxygen Lounge, a regular showcase of experimental music and musicians. Oxygen Lounge showcased sonic artists from all over the world and utilized a multi-disipline approach to present the creative arts by combining music with numerous other art forms.
As a solo performer under the moniker -- "table:artist", you can hear sounds that span the spectrum of what can be considered music. Performing on alto clarinet, bass, percussion, samples, radio signals & synthesis while utilizing real time loop/sample/re-mixing, Thomas improvises with the moment and the environment enabling a unique and fresh performance every time.
His early love for sound and the subsequent journey into jazz improvisation, spontaneous music and sound creation has been a defining influence in his work as a visual artist as well. Thomas is a self trained visual artist, however, he derives his approach to painting from his "in the moment" approach to creating spontaneous music. Currently, Thomas divides his time equally between the two art forms he knows and loves.
Painting in the moment without thought or intended direction, Thomas has recently been creating abstract spontaneous acrylic paintings that mirror his unique approach to creating music in that they are usually improvised creations of spontaneous energy. Freeing the mind of any ideas and reacting to the moment is ultimately what his works attempt to capture. Not limited to this style of work, he has also created numerous installations over the years incorporating sound and interactive participation from the audience. The combination of sight and sound has become increasingly important in his work as he continues to pursue both visual art and sonic art.
contact: twin72@twin72.com
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