Windflower - CD

Sparse, subtle and determined as much by silence as by sound, hers is a music created using deft, fleeting strokes," wrote the BBC Music Magazine of Ayumi Tanaka's 2021 album, Subaqueous Silence. Her new album, Windflower, reconfirms the potency of a musical approach in which intensity is conveyed through restraint and focus. This time, however, the music is for the most part collectively created, with all three players shaping the pieces in the moment. Tanaka, the Wakayama-born and Oslo-based pianist, has collaborated with Norwegian drummer Thomas Stronen for a decade already, in contexts including the band Time Is a Blind Guide and the Bayou trio with reed player and singer Marthe Lea. The association with American bassist Thomas Morgan is a new development. The album features eight luminous free ballads, plus Ayumi's composition "La Source.