In his debut album, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and interdisciplinary artist Darian Donovan Thomas explores the space between heartbreak and healing. Released Aug. 2 on New Amsterdam Records, A Room with Many Doors layers lament, disdain, pain, and hope throughout the long-form work, the tracks bleeding into one another like feelings that coexist, if only for a moment. With eclectic performances by Kalia Vandever, Taja Cheek (L’Rain), Alfredo Colón, Ben Chapoteau-Katz, Phong Tran, and Thomas himself, the album is a monumental feat of collaboration.
For each song on the album, Thomas provided specific performance instructions to his fellow musicians. The opening track, “Snow Storm,” sees the start of this direction-based work, with the following prompt given to the horn section:
(1) be calm, maybe kind of tired — very plain and uncolored sound, (2) then be more aggravated, and (3) on the third time play it as if you’re the worst middle school player ever. Raw and sincere, and maybe a little embarrassed. Then do that whole process again but more extreme in all of these directions
This framework builds in waves over the course of the track; some are small, spanning the rise and fall of Thomas’ voice in delivering the painstaking lyrics, “What a mess we’ve made, but the snow won’t stay, I know it melts away.” Other moments surge with insurmountable grit and overblown swells from the saxophones, breaking from the idea of beautiful, rounded sound into aggressive, often distorted honks that grow in intensity as the players cycle through the material. The effect is an overwhelming mammoth of sound toward the end, an embrace of chaos and the complexity of human emotion.
“Failed Acolyte” starts with a robotic figure on an array of vocal synthesizers played by Chapateau-Katz and L’Rain, with hints of laughter adding to the hellish, granular landscape. The feeling is alien yet so familiar, embodying Thomas’ goal to “make things feel natural even if their scale is kind of abnormal.” The mesh of synthesizers, the agony of our narrator, and the complexity of the universe we’ve stepped into feels almost unbearable, but this nightmarish microcosm eventually shifts slowly and effortlessly to a place of hope. L’Rain emerges into a cosmic metaverse, where dottings of cello and trance-like synths co-exist with an echoing tape of Thomas’ mother; she talks about pain, but reminds Thomas that he will never be alone and will always have the presence of his ancestors.
“Volver Volver” ingeniously flirts with technology, language, and personal discovery. The track guides us through a soft yearning with birds chirping in the background as Thomas’ beautifully anguished voice begs for understanding. Thomas’ vocals and Ray Maldonado’s lyrics gradually become the focal point, with Thomas crying out, “In your arms, I will get to where you are, I know how to lose, I want to go back.” Vandever enters with a trombone solo that responds to a prompt asking her to summon a person she loved and lost, resulting in her hypnotic, mesmerizing presence testing the waters. Sweeping trombone wails dance across the calm through interjections of electronic clicks, making the return of Thomas’ voice all the more powerful.
Darian Donovan Thomas — Photo by Oscar Moreno
The psychedelic pulses of “Flirting” tell us something is coming with its ambient synth opening. There is an air of curiosity as the track evokes the unmistakable scene of a dance floor, throwing the listener into the center of a nightclub with the introduction of house beats. This carries into “Flirting Coda,” a duet between Thomas and Tran that reckons with the idea that authentic love exists. What sounds like ethereal, dystopian beings singing in the distance shifts into soft orchestral interludes topped with plucky strings and the calm of Thomas’ voice, letting us know that, in time, it will all be okay.
A Room with Many Doors is a transformative experience from start to finish, moving through the stages of grief tenderly, and reminding us that our thoughts and feelings are temporary; we are allowed to bask in their glory while also challenging them, expanding our personal definition of what they mean to us. In a similar way, Thomas masterfully deconstructs genre and allows for lyricism, texture, and a diverse palette of sounds, while experimentations with interpretation, style, and ways of being create room for introspection throughout the work. The album allows listeners the time and space to experience their emotions, whatever they may be, and navigate them with raw honesty and vulnerability.
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