Thomas Strønen

Ayumi Tanaka, Thomas Morgan, Thomas Strønen: Windflower

Read "Windflower" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
September 29, 2026

Ayumi Tanaka plays with precision and spare motifs. There are no wasted notes, and her work owes much to the balance between her country of birth and the country of residence. She has a virtuosic restraint. Rhythmic structures are often flexible, non-metrical, or thin, closely mirroring the organic movements of nature. In an interview she said, “I really think that what I do is trying to learn from nature. The way we play with space is not quantifiable. I want ...

Album Review

Jazz Out of Norway: 12th Set 2026

Read "12th Set 2026" reviewed by Daniel Mège

by Daniel Mège
September 28, 2026

Jazz Out Of Norway is a collection on Odin Records that compiles tracks drawn from some of the most emblematic albums released in Norway since 1989. The 12th Set is a valuable document that takes stock of the situation in 2026. This edition is remarkable for its musicality, its diversity of styles, but also for the sequencing of the 36 tracks (almost three hours), which highlights each one within the setting created by the tracks surrounding it. The ...

Album Review

Ayumi Tanaka, Thomas Morgan, Thomas Strønen: Windflower

Read "Windflower" reviewed by Frank Housh

by Frank Housh
August 17, 2026

Ayumi Tanaka's Windflower uses Nordic jazz's musical vocabulary against an ancient Japanese landscape, creating depth and beauty by the space left empty. Tanaka is a Japanese pianist and composer for whom Norwegian jazz feels “very personal," explaining how it “made the air feel alive." She was determined to figure out how. She moved to Norway in 2011 and earned a master's degree from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. She augmented her studies by improvising “together with the ...

Album Review

Ayumi Tanaka, Thomas Morgan, Thomas Strønen: Windflower

Read "Windflower" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
August 6, 2026

Japanese pianist and composer Ayumi Tanaka has become a distinctive voice on the Scandinavian jazz scene since settling in Oslo. A graduate of the Norwegian Academy of Music, she has forged musical relationships with Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen and American bassist Thomas Morgan, whose intuitive rapport lies at the heart of Windflower. Following early performances at Oslo's Victoria, Nasjonal Jazzscene, the trio attracted the attention of ECM producer Manfred Eicher, leading to this debut recording. The album follows on ...

Inside the Songs

Thomas Strønen Time Is A Blind Guide: Off Stillness

by Dean Nardi
April 8, 2026

During his Time Is A Blind Guide reunion with keyboardist Ayumi Tanaka, cellist Leo Svensson Sander (replacing Lucy Railton), violinist Håkon Aase and double-bassist Ole Morten Vågan on Off Stillness (ECM Records, 2025), Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen lands in a peculiar, improvised pocket. Brushed rhythms, unusual violin counterpoints, verbose bass, pizzicato cello and fractured piano arpeggios lend this taut yet spontaneous brightness to “Memories of Paul," a driftless song powered by the quintet's alluring, polyrhythmic impulses. It is dedicated to not ...

Radio & Podcasts

Thomas Strønen, Tortoise, Britta Virves, Seb Rochford, Dishwasher_, Beiggja

by Ludovico Granvassu
February 13, 2026

This episode--bookended by drummers who are also adventurous composers and bandleaders--explores the evolving landscape of contemporary jazz. The playlist unfolds as a sonic journey, moving seamlessly from introspection to collective energy and reflecting the dynamic, genre-defying nature of today's scene. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Sebastian Rochford “ComMUnity" Finding Ways (Edition) 0:16 Host talks 3:16 Tortoise “Oganesson" Touch (Nonesuch/International Anthem) 4:32 Host talks 7:44 Dishwasher_ “Aisling" ...

Album Review

Timo Vollbrecht: Bremen New York

Read "Bremen New York" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
November 27, 2025

Per il suo ultimo lavoro il sassofonista e compositore di origine tedesca Timo Vollbrecht allestisce un quintetto da sogno, registra alla leggendaria Sendesaal di Brema e intitola il disco Bremen/New York, ideale ponte tra la patria d'origine e la patria d'adozione. Per qualità del suono, cura dei dettagli e impianto complessivo Bremen/New York potrebbe essere un classico disco ECM (non a caso Vollbrecht sta lavorando ad un libro su Manfred Eicher, fondatore della storica etichetta tedesca). La musica fluisce ...

Interview

Percussionist Thomas Stronen Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
October 25, 2011

One of Norway's most prolific drummers, sampling percussionists and composers, Thomas Strønen is the co-founder of Food, along with British saxophonist Iain Ballamy. The group—which, since 2005, has whittled down from an original quartet that also featured Norwegians Arve Henriksen on trumpet and Mats Eilertsen on bass—released its most recent record, Quiet Inlet, in 2010 (its first for the German ECM label), and regularly includes guests that vary from one show to the next. up's sampled improvisational music.

Strønen is ...
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