Lucus

For his album Lucus, Norwegian drummer / composer Thomas Strønen presents a revised edition of his acoustic collective Time Is A Blind Guide, now trimmed to quintet size, and with a new pianist in Wakayama-born Ayumi Tanaka. Tanaka has spoken of seeking associative connections between Japan and Norway in her improvising, a tendency Strønen seems to be encouraging with his space-conscious writing for the ensemble, letting in more light. As on the group’s eponymously- titled and critically-lauded debut album there are excellent contributions from the string players - the quintet effectively contains both a string trio and a piano trio- and Manfred Eicher’s production brings out all the neat detail in the grain of the collective sound and the halo of its overtones, captured in the famously-responsive acoustic of Lugano’s Auditorio Stelio Molo in March 2017.

LP - 180 Gram Vinyl with Download.