Al-Khwarizmi was a Muslim mathemetician who lived during the mid 7th century A.D., and is credited with the creation of algebra and the first use of the number zero as a place holder in numeric equations. I'm not sure what exactly he has to do with Pat Thomas' piano improvisations here, but a quick Internet search leads me to a talk he gave in 2009 on Islam's contribution to jazz and improvised musics. There is a connection then, to Thomas at least.

The improvisations here contain a wide variety of idea and approach; Grand and dissonant tone clusters, Cecil Taylor-like ejections of rapid-fire melodic cells, forays inside the piano to pluck, strum and dampen, and romantic gesture are all included. The recording itself is quite striking, sounding unlike any piano recording I've heard in the past. All the notes are sharp and cutting, and overtones are clearly heard, allowing for some really magical clouds of chordal storm. There seems to be some sort of electronic something going on, I can hear a faint beeping during Variation 3, wherein Thomas treats the piano harp like a giant zither, but I can't tell if it's the piano being manipulated, or if it's a cell-phone alert. I only noticed it when listening on headphones however. Regardless, Thomas presents a fine compendium of modern-day techniques on a standard western instrument.