Musical messages from Oslo, New York, Basel and Lugano are juxtaposed and recombined on an absorbing recording that features Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen solo and in a series of duets.

With such partners as Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland and Jorge Rossy, the musical frame of reference is very broad here on Relations.

In summarizing the characters involved in Relations, the space where the story started – the highly responsive Auditorio Stelio Molo – should not be overlooked. “It’s my dream room to play in,” says Thomas Strønen. “Everything you do is so transparent. Every texture, every little beat. You have to be extremely accurate because it’s a proper acoustic room. When you hear the brushwork, it’s really loud. Even though I’m barely touching the drum, it resonates in the whole room. It can also be tense. You can’t overplay. I felt I had to take away everything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.”

Elements from Langeland’s archaic-sounding folk to Potter’s post-Coltrane saxophone and Taborn’s whirlwind modernist piano each find their place in a project that implies new threads of connectivity, new creative relationships.

1. Confronting Silence [4:04]
2. The Axiom Of Equality [2:15]
3. Weaving Loom [2:54]
4. Koyasan [2:44]
5. Beginners Guide To Simplicity [1:43]
6. Nemesis [2:07]
7. Nonduality [2:17]
8. Ephemeral [3:05]
9. Pentagonal Garden [4:03]
10. Arc For Drums [3:39]
11. Ishi [3:37]
12. KMJ [3:13]

The album was completed and mixed by Strønen and producer Manfred Eicher at Bavaria Musikstudios in Munich in February 2023, and opens on the simplicity of silence within the aptly-named Confronting Silence (its title borrowed from Toru Takemitsu’s Selected Writings) and the organically skittish one minute, sanguine and flirtatious the next The Axiom Of Equality, and then we are brought forth the robust Weaving Loom, the glistening Koyasan, the all-embracing call out of Beginners Guide To Simplicity, and then we are presented the furtive Nemesis.

Conceived and realized over a four year period, we continue onward with the delicately hued Nonduality and the joyfully spirited Ephemeral, and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the somber, yet embracing nature of Pentagonal Garden, the crystalline sounds that drive Arc For Drums, the recording rounding out on the precariously-crafted Ishi, closing on the languishing beauty of KMJ.

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Thomas Strønen @ Facebook