Cover of the album being discussed (from the album’s Amazon.com Web page)
It has been quite a while since I last encountered a recording of jazz percussionist Thomas Strønen. Back in December of 2012, I wrote an Examiner.com piece about Mercurial Balm, an ECM album of his duo performances with saxophonist Iain Ballamy, both of whom were core members of the Food quartet. This Friday ECM will release Strønen’s latest album, Relations, which consists of a series of solo and duo tracks. The duo partners are pianist Craig Taborn, Chris Potter on both tenor and soprano saxophone, vocalist Sinikka Langeland accompanying on kantele, and pianist Jorge Rossy. As of this writing, the album is scheduled for release on Friday and is available for pre-order through an Amazon.com download Web page, which includes a PDF file of the accompany booklet.
Where Mercurial Balm unfolded through contours of intensity, Relations is structured more through fidelity to the album title. Each of the duo tracks establishes its own characteristic relation between its respective instrument and Strønen’s percussion resources. This makes for a more “personal” repertoire than the tracks for Mercurial Balm.
ECM listeners are probably already familiar with both Taborn and Potter. Whether or not that familiarity emerges through their duo performances with Strønen can only be left as an exercise for the attentive listener! For my own part, I can simply gain satisfaction through the diversity of approaches that Strønen takes to each of his duo partners.
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