PITH is the chamber-scale offshoot of Sean Noonan’s boundary-breaking double album The Drummer of Tedworth, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. Tedworth is the first full-length orchestral work ever written for a speaking drummer at the kit — a performer who sings, narrates, and improvises while fronting a symphony orchestra. An acting tour-de-force, it stands as possibly the most extensive collaboration between an American artist and the LSO since Frank Zappa’s legendary recordings in the 1980s.
Where Tedworth fused the scale of rock opera, the intensity of punk-jazz, and the surreal logic of the Theatre of the Absurd, PITH distills the material into raw, high-energy performances — where orchestral echoes morph into punk-charged anthems, fractured funk, and surreal improvisations.
At the heart of every performance is Olis, Noonan’s alter ego and reluctant disembodied seeker. In PITH, Olis navigates through cosmic mischief, trickster spirits, sacred underpants, and the surreal arrival of Emmr, the Martian Refugee, whose miraculous birth gives Olis a body to inhabit: the body of Sean Noonan — all culminating in a mind-hijacking prank on Benjamin Franklin during one of his “air baths.” This absurd and theatrical narrative drives every performance, making each show unpredictable and exhilarating.
The trio lineup brings together:
Lino Blöchlinger – flute, alto/bass saxophone Norbert Bürger – guitar Sean Noonan – drums, vocals, compositions
Together they ignite a volatile chemistry: anarchic improvisation, twisted funk, punk urgency, and vivid rhythmic storytelling. Imagine New York madness crashing into Bavarian cabaret and Swiss free-improv — then dancing together in a riot of sound, story, and theatrical chaos.
About Sean Noonan
Sean Noonan is a rhythmic storyteller, composer, and speaking drummer whose genre-defying work blends jazz, rock opera, contemporary classical music, and folklore into immersive narrative performances. Described as a “punk-jazz Alan Lomax,” his music draws from the ancient traditions of wandering minstrels and griots, reimagined through a polyrhythmic lens he calls his “fifth limb.”
“Independence might be the ruling concept of this drummer-leader’s career... It defines a common relationship not only among his hands, feet, and voice, but between his art and almost everything else in drumming.”
— Modern Drummer Magazine
With over 34 albums and performances in 15 countries, Noonan has collaborated with artists such as Marc Ribot, Malcolm Mooney (original singer of CAN), Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Susan McKeown, Abdoulaye Diabaté, and the Ligeti Quartet.
“Sean Noonan approaches postmodern jazz and world music from the same angle of self-discovery... he manages to make his pieces speak coherently, and in a unified voice.”
— The New York Times
