Recording of the Week, Thomas Strønen, Ayumi Tanaka & Marthe Lea - Bayou

Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen and Japanese pianist Ayumi Tanaka already have some collaborative history together, as part of the drummer’s ensemble Time Is a Blind Guide’s 2019 record, Lucus. The quintet - which also contained a trio of string players - established Strønen and his collaborators as ones to watch on the ECM catalogue. This time around the proceedings are much more low-key, as the two are joined by multireedist and vocalist Marthe Lea, who takes centre-stage right from the get-go, singing the opening title track.

The entirety of Bayou was written by the trio in the studio space, the project itself conceived as an ‘open-form rehearsal and sound research project’ as the trio put it; these ‘compositions’ were created in the moment, the names themselves taken from bodies of water; rather befitting of the free-flowing, unpredictable music. The only track on the album that isn’t a wholly original composition is the aforementioned title track - itself based on a traditional Norwegian folk song. The minimalistic arrangement is led by Marthe Lea’s vocals singing a repeating motif, sprinkled with occasional piano and percussive dashes. Though having done much work as a woodwind player, Lea spent much of her youth singing the folk songs of her native country, offering her whispered tones in a new context. The warm, melodic tone returns on ‘Bayou II’; after a long spate of sparse improvisatory pieces it’s almost a welcome return for the listener. Lea again offers her vocal talents on ‘Chantra’ in between the atmospheric chasm of the two instrumentalists; if Strønen and Tanaka are the crafters of the landscape, Lea is a little light guiding us through. The second track ‘Pasha’ feels dominated by Strønen’s blitz of percussive attacks, less melodic or obvious in tone compared to the opening.

Tanaka’s gentle melodicism grants the pieces a painterly, sometimes impressionistic angle, her careful touch just as key to the record’s atmosphere as Strønen’s gentle percussion or Lea’s restrained vocals. Bayou is, on the whole, a very atmospheric affair, sitting on the more comfortable end of freely-improvised jazz; less interested in moveable beats, the session unfolds with a sort of quiet desolation.