Rhythmic storyteller, composer, and convention-pooper Sean Noonan announces the release of The Drummer of Tedworth, a landmark double album recorded with (in front of!-) the world-renowned London Symphony Orchestra.

Noonan defies many things including categorization; blending jazz, contemporary classical, and global folklore into immersive zany narrative performances, equally at home in a Fringe fest as in the darkest corners of your mind. As if Samuel Beckett had taken up punk jazz. The Drummer of Tedworth is the explosive culmination of Noonan’s long- running cosmic saga featuring his alter ego, Olis—a disembodied seeker on a metaphysical quest for enlightenment, or “pnoom.”

“Some say it was rats, others say wind. But I tell you, no mortal hand could summon such a rhythm. The drum had a voice. It was speaking... to me. I’ve not slept since.” — Local Man, John Mompesson, 1662

The album transforms an English ghost story into a surreal fantasy post- theatrical epic. Loosely inspired by the mysterious drumming terrors chronicled in Joseph Glanvill’s Sadduscismus Triumphatus, the tale follows Olis through cosmic mist, trickster spirits, and Martian refugees. The 88-minute work unfolds in two acts over 21 episodic tracks.

“This is not simply an orchestral work with percussion,” says Noonan. “It is a voice-and-drum-driven story where the orchestra becomes a character in the tale, an immersive journey into existential chaos and absurdity.”

The narrative centers on Olis, who rejects birth to search for a formless enlightenment. His quest pulls him into the Féth Fiada, a liminal mist between worlds, where he is guided and deceived by the cryptic seer Skarbnik. He encounters a bizarre cast of characters, including a Drunkard Landlady, mischievous dwarfs (Krasnoludki), and Emmr, a pregnant Martian refugee pursued by Accabadora, the stammering woman of death.

Their flight leads to a mind-hijacking prank on Benjamin Franklin to steal his latest invention, the Stammerjammer, culminating in a whimsical battle where tickling is the ultimate weapon and a pair of sacred underpants becomes a symbol of surrender. It is a metaphysical odyssey that asks: to resist existence or embrace its chaotic beauty?

This album stands as one of the most extensive projects between an American artist and the LSO since Frank Zappa’s legendary recordings. It fuses the scale of rock opera, the intensity of a wild Irish griot, and the surreal logic of the Theatre of the Absurd.

The Drummer of Tedworth is a testament to Noonan’s vision of “one voice, one drum, many stories.” Upending norms from start to finish (even sporting cover art by CAN star, Malcolm Mooney), it is a work for the seriously adventurous of all ages, proving that the ancient traditions of the wandering minstrel are alive, well, and still full of marvels.