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Thread: AAJ Review: Thomas Stronen's Time is a Blind Guide & Elephant9: Oslo, Norway

  1. #1

    AAJ Review: Thomas Stronen's Time is a Blind Guide & Elephant9: Oslo, Norway





    My review of two shows in Oslo, from a couple weeks back - Elephant9 and drummer Thomas Strønen's new project, Time is a Blind Guide, today at All About Jazz.

    Elephant9, with guitarist Reine Fiske seeming to be a de facto member of the original power trio - keyboardist Ståle Storløkken, bassist Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen and drummer Torstein Lofthus - was in exactly the right venue: Oslo's MONO. A small, standing room club that's gritty, grimy and greasy, it was both intimate and an opportunity to hear this progressive-fusion outfit loud and unshackled. A monstrous performance from a group that just keeps on getting better.

    Part of BBC Radio 3 host Fiona Talkington's Conexions series, which brings UK and Norwegian musicians together (like last year's massively successful collaboration with Jaga Jazzist and the Britten Sinfonia, soon to be released as an album), drummer Thomas Strønen is best-known for free improvising groups Food and Humcrush. Here, however, with his new octet, Time is a Blind Guide, while improv was an element, it was in the context of some very richly written and deeply melodic charts, demonstrating that as strong an improviser as he is, Strønen is also a superb composer.

    With British pianist Kit Downes and cellist Lucy Railton (who plays in Downes' Quiet Tiger group), Strønen also recruited bassist Ole Morten Vågan, violinist Nils Økland and three percussionists - Johan Nordh, Nils Økland, Steiner Mossige - Strønen had the latitude to also break the group down into subsets including a percussion ensemble, a piano trio, a string trio, and the result was an evening of music that continued to surprise across its 90-minutes.

    Review here.

  2. #2
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Elephant9 feat. Reine Fiske - At The Tokyo Jazz Festival 2013
    This smokes !



    Reine Fiske - electric guitar
    Stale Storlokken - hammond organ rhodes
    Nikolai Haengsle Eilertsen - electric bass
    Torstein Lofthus - drums

  3. #3


    Since this long-ago thread has been revived, I may as well post my review of Thomas' album of the same name. The group is slightly different (but still with Kit Downes and Lucy Railton), and this is NOT a recording of the show I covered in Oslo; instead, the music has evolved since then, Thomas has written some new music, and they've played some additional gigs.

    Here's the link to the album review, released on ECM a few weeks ago.

  4. #4
    By coincidence, I just saw a note this morning in the newspaper announcing forthcoming gigs by Thomas Strønen - just about to check out whether I'm going to be able to catch him live - & then going to order this cd - thanks, as always, for sharing your review, John - this venture of Strønen sounds very exciting (I love his work with Ballamy in Food).

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by per anporth View Post
    By coincidence, I just saw a note this morning in the newspaper announcing forthcoming gigs by Thomas Strønen - just about to check out whether I'm going to be able to catch him live - & then going to order this cd - thanks, as always, for sharing your review, John - this venture of Strønen sounds very exciting (I love his work with Ballamy in Food).
    Thanks for the kind words, as always. I love Food very much, but this is absolutely diametrically different: heavily composed; completely acoustic; improv, yes, but in a more limited fashion...and just wonderfully, beautifully lyrical writing. I've known Thomas for a few years now and still, I never thought he had this in him. I love it when guys I love continue to completely surprise me....

  6. #6
    Ach - I'm all the more excited having read this, John - & all the more frustrated. Somehow, I'm managing to travel around the country during the tour as if magnetically repelled - where ever Thomas goes, I'm heading in the opposite direction! Bah!!!

    But that thing - where artists whom you think you know well, produce wholly unexpected work - isn't it magical?

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