Videos
Tom Skinner - Live at Le Guess Who?
Tom Skinner - Bishara (Live at St Luke’s)
Tom Skinner - The Journey (Live at St. Luke's)
Press
“The Smile’s Tom Skinner Announces New Album Voices of Bishara.” — Pitchfork
"The band has created six tracks that progress from free-jazz fanfares of battling horns and textural percussion to menacing bass dirges and trance-inducing, overlapping melodies." — The Guardian
“He’s the sort of drummer who always locates the pivot point between chaos and clarity, and he brings that shifting insight into focus on a solo album, ‘Voices of Bishara’” — NPR
“Captures both the spirit and heart of old-school spiritual jazz … while simultaneously embracing the modern-day evolution of that form of expression” - Bandcamp
Projects
Voices of Bishara
Tom Skinner (drums and percussion)
Tom Herbert (acoustic bass)
Kareem Dayes (cello)
Chelsea Carmichael (tenor sax)
Robert Stillman (tenor sax)
Core Unit, sub. to change
Selected projects
Selected discography
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London based drummer, composer and producer Tom Skinner has been a vital and central figure in the burgeoning underground music scene in London throughout the last 20 years. Tom is a leading member of The Smile with Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Their debut album “A Light For Attracting Attention” was released to critical acclaim in June 2022 and they have been touring the record across UK, Europe and US throughout the year.
2022 also saw Tom release the first album under his name, ‘Voices of Bishara’. Tom composed and recorded the 6 pieces for saxophone, percussion, bass, cello and flute live in the same room and then manipulated the recordings, chopping and looping sections to breathe new life into the music. The result is a tight, hypnotic and unique sound, Voices of Bishara is sculpted around timeless and deeply emotional music that contains masses of movement and exceptional harmonic depth and texture.
In 2012, Tom released his self-titled solo record under the alias Hello Skinny to critical acclaim, MOJO Magazine describing it as “…existing in that fertile zone where jazz, dub, techno and avant-pop deliquesce into an exhilarating free-for-all.” The second Hello Skinny album Watermelon Sun, released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label in 2017, featured a collaboration with acclaimed veteran New York composer and trombonist Peter Zummo.
Tom is also an original member of award winning band Sons Of Kemet alongside band-leader and frequent collaborator Shabaka Hutchings. Their third album Your Queen Is A Reptile [Impulse! 2018] garnered worldwide critical acclaim including a Mercury Prize 2018 nomination. Their latest album Black To The Future [Impulse! 2021] was met with rave reviews, NME giving it 5 stars, claiming the album to be the band at their “most dynamic and urgent”.
Throughout his career, Tom has performed and recorded with notable musicians such as Jonny Greenwood, Grace Jones, Jarvis Cocker, Kano, Matthew Herbert, Mulatu Astatke, Floating Points, The Invisible, Zero 7 and many more.
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