LIVE 2025

Stories About People and Everyone Else
is about those moments where lives meet each other and our environments. Chicana video artist ACVilla and keyboardist Thollem McDonas tell stories through film and live music that are at once ubiquitous and mysterious. They bring the dynamics of the world into the intimacy of the home, reconceptualizing the static with the transitory, taking us into the liminal spaces through which we all pass but seldom notice.

Thollem and ACVilla have been performing their multimedia collaborations over the last 15 years throughout N. America and Europe. In 2025 the duo will be touring ‘Stories About People And Everyone Else’, a 60-minute series of new shorts as well as selections from older projects including Obstacle Illusion, Worlds In A Life, and Who Are U.S. Thollem’s original live music draws from these soundtracks as well as his recent releases: Worlds In A Life and Infinite-Sum Game on ESP-Disk’, Obstacle Illusion on Astral Spirits, and Hot Pursuit Of Happiness on PA Tapes.

“Slyly sublime and beautifully brutal” – The Albuquerque Alibi

Coming up in 2025
March 17th (Urbana, IL) @ University Of Illinois – ‘Stories About People And Everyone Else’
March 13th (Detroit, MI) @ Trinosophes – ‘Stories About People And Everyone Else’
March 31st (Zurich CH) @ Xenix – ‘Stories About People And Everyone Else’

Thollem•ACVilla has been presented by: Northwest Film Forum, Hallwalls, Crystal Bridges, Krannert Art Museum, Vision Festival, University of Santa Barbara, Works/San José, Yosemite Art Museum, Harwood Museum, Erie Art Museum, Crocker Art Museum, Guild Cinema (Abq), Icebox Project Space, SITE Santa Fe, Curva Minore, Il Centro d’Arte dell’Università di Padova, Infrasuoni l’Asilo, AngelicA, and Metronome Festival, among others throughout North America and Europe.

BOOKING: contact@thollemacvilla.com

“With ACVilla’s work “there’s a continuous sense that things aren’t quite right but are still beautiful and intriguing.”
– The Wire

“A fresh sight & sound take on the road trip and all points, people & things in between.”  
– Keif Henley, Guild Cinema (Albuquerque, NM)

“The duo’s performance as a whole was utterly unique, a deep sense of reflection. ACVilla invites viewers to see an artistic bridge between human’s urban developments and the natural world. Thollem’s talent pushes the boundaries of melody, inviting the audience to observe and think deeply throughout the uncanny and unique auditory artwork they are experiencing.”
– Lola Watts, Santa Barbara Independent

“A carefully controlled chaos and sense of drama permeates this sonic mosaic, a frenetic and heady exploration. ACVilla’s collage-like storytelling heightens the sharp, sudden movements and countless timbres. Piano strings bellow from the depths, ridden by rapid-fire synth explorations and percussive drops. The imagery plays out like a mix between a psychedelic travelogue and nightmarish memories buried deep in the subconscious. Thollem’s voice comes in from all sides riding sinuous string patterns, leaving us wondering if we’ve missed a hidden message. So much of the framework of “Worlds In A Life” is cryptic and in constant motion, but the progressive flow of image and sound is mesmerizing, leaving us parched and wanting more. This is exquisite.”
– Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis

“I had the surprising experience of feeling that I was home in all scenes, including what seemed most unfamiliar.”
– Laurie Buenafe Krsmanovic, musician

“The musique concrète of these tracks puts together and deforms sounds from disparate sources,
yet somehow feels of a live, organic performance.”
– S.V.A., Something Else!

“refreshingly bonkers.”
– Anonymous audient at the Metronome Festival, Dublin

“With the WIAL albums, Thollem “pushes even further out, exploring the potentialities of using
previous collaborations as source material for surprising new sounds.”
– Daniel Spicer, The Wire

“reminds listeners of the avant-garde ’80s rock of the Residents or Frank Zappa’s Jazz From Hell.”
– Phil Freeman, Downbeat

OBSTACLE ILLUSION is titled after Thollem’s solo electric album on Astral Spirits Records. The focus visually is on ACVilla’s technique of projecting the outside world onto the inside of living spaces, starting with her familiy’s 150 year old adobe home in Northern New Mexico. Conjuring subconscious thoughts and hidden memories. The experience is simultaneously pleasurable and challenging.

WHO ARE U.S. at home in the unfamiliar
In 2016 Thollem and ACVilla motored around the lower 48 states of the U.S. documenting the points where people come into contact with the land and each other. Thollem scored their work as they progressed. The 3-album set is available on Aural Films.

WORLDS IN A LIFE reassembles original audio from Thollem’s series of trio albums with Nels Cline (including Terry Riley, William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, and Michael Wimberly). ACVilla takes us along their journey as nomadic artists, layering disparate images and scenes. Philosophically, it is a meditation on the infinite within each of us and our relationships with the world. An adventure to the center of ourselves. WIAL, I, II, and III available on ESP-Disk’.