Thomas Strønen

Norwegian Thomas Strønen works across an unusually broad spectrum as drummer, composer, arranger, improviser, producer, and bandleader. Over the course of his career he has appeared on or initiated roughly seventy albums, both under his own name and alongside an expansive roster of collaborators. Those projects include the group Food, formed with Iain Ballamy, Arve Henriksen, Mats Eilertsen, and Fennesz; the duo Humcrush alongside Ståle Storløkken; Parish, which features Bobo Stenson; his own ensemble Time Is a Blind Guide; Mats Eilertsen’s trio completed by Harmen Fraanje; and the Maria Kannegaard Trio. Additional recording and compositional credits link him to Eivind Aarset, Nils Petter Molvaer, John Taylor, Tore Brunborg, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Sidsel Endresen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Tomasz Stańko, and Stian Carstensen.

After six years of jazz and composition studies he earned his diploma from the Music Conservatory of Trondheim in 1999. From those student years onward he has immersed himself in improvised music across widely varying settings. Strønen approaches performance as an interactive participant, deliberately shaping new musical structures in order to invite unforeseen outcomes. His drumming is characterized by a melodic, nearly circular phrasing that accommodates both acoustic and electronic palettes, and he maintains recording relationships with Rune Grammofon and ECM. Among his most widely recognized releases are the 2004 Humcrush album, the 2006 Parish date, six Food recordings issued on the two labels between 2002 and 2015, and a pair of Time Is a Blind Guide projects, one of which is the 2018 album Lucus. Three further discs with Mats Eilertsen’s trio also stand out, especially the 2019 recording And Then Comes the Night.

In 2021 Strønen delivered the ECM trio album Bayou, recorded with clarinetist Marthe Lea and pianist Ayumi Tanaka. Following three years of concentrated touring and studio work that encompassed sessions in New York City and Oslo, he issued the twelve-track collection Relations, which contains two solo pieces framed by duets involving pianists Craig Taborn and Jorge Rossy in alternation, together with Norwegian singer, kantele player, and folk musician Sinikka Langeland and saxophonist Chris Potter.