there is much to enjoy
ECM 2771 / 750 6846
Thomas Strønen (drums, percussion); Craig Taborn (piano); Chris Potter (soprano & tenor saxophone); Sinikka Langeland (kantele, voice); Jorge Rossy (piano)
Recorded and assembled between 2018 and 2022
An album that has been put together not so much from a collage of musical snippets but a collage of ideas. As one thought process and idea led to another so the musical tapestry that drummer and percussionist Thomas Strønen has presented here gradually came into being.
From what started out as using remaining studio time following the completion of the drummer’s Bayou album with Marthe Lea and Ayumi Tanaka, producer Manfred Eicher suggested that Strønen record some solo drums and percussion and “Let’s see what happens.”
What happened was that with a selection of solo percussion pieces recorded and the Bayou album being prepared for release, nothing happened straight away. As the pandemic curtailed opportunities for live music, the drummer felt that it would be good idea to send some of the percussion tracks to other musicians to see what they would bring to the music. Strønen also took onboard Eicher’s advice to send the tracks to musicians that he had not worked with before.
The result is an intriguing set of pieces, two solo pieces for drums and percussion and ten duets with four musicians from Europe and the US. With each of the musicians being sent several tracks and left to decide which they would like to contribute to, the music was dictated not by Strønen but the players themselves.
The different working methods of the participants has therefore created music that is vastly contrasting in nature, with the most hard hitting and direct music coming not surprisingly from Chris Potter and Craig Taborn in the US. Potter’s features, one apiece for tenor and soprano saxophones come straight out of the tenor/drums duets of the free jazz period. However, both Potter and Strønen are too wily to fall into overblown multiphonics at the sacrifice of melodic development. If Potter is initially hesitant on both ‘Weaving Loom’ and ‘Ephemeral’ is it is merely to wait for Strønen’s drumming to set a pace and flow for him to step into.
Pianist, Craig Taborn follows a similar path in allowing the drums to suggest a path ahead of his explorations but it transpires that Taborn approached the concept very fluidly not even listening to the percussion part prior to recording his contribution and reacting in real time to what he was hearing.
The opposite approach to such spontaneous composition can be heard on the three pieces featuring kantele player and vocalist Sinikka Langeland with Langeland committing Strønen’s parts to memory before carefully adding her kantele and voice. The connection between Strønen and Langeland is immediately apparent, and from this initial ‘meeting’ the drummer has joined Sinikka’s quintet and recorded on her most recent ECM album, Wind and Sun.
A most interesting meeting is that of Strønen with fellow drummer and percussionist Jorge Rossy. A distinguished and gifted multi-instrumentalist Rossy eschews drums and vibraphone in favour of piano and brings an intensity to bear that is very different from that of New York based Taborn, finding common ground with the drummer in their shared use of space and silence in three absorbing duets.
Initially I felt that the album comprised too many disparate parts to be wholly successful but on careful and repeated listening, in addition to programming my listening to isolate the partnerships where they do not run consecutively, there is much to enjoy.
