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Pianist // Composer
Pianist // Composer
ECM Records
Ayumi Tanaka Trio
Ayumi Tanaka - Piano
Christian Meaas Svendsen - Double Bass
Per Oddvar Johansen - Drums
Subaqueous Silence, pianist Ayumi Tanaka’s leader debut for ECM – following critically acclaimed releases with Thomas Stronen (Lucus, Bayou) – is a strikingly original statement. Tanaka met bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen shortly after arriving in Oslo a decade ago and they have been developing their musical language together, exploring the implications of Ayumi’s compositions. Deep interest in the work of Norwegian improvisers prompted Tanaka’s move to the West, but she also speaks of a growing awareness of her own cultural roots; there is an ascetic rigour in her playing, as well as a sense of space suggesting affinities with Japanese classical music. Ayumi views the trio as “more like a chamber ensemble. We share a flow of energy, even in silence.” Per Oddvar Johansen’s subtle drumming has previously distinguished recordings with Trygve Seim, Christian Wallumrød and others. Christian Meaas Svendsen makes his first ECM appearance on Subaqueous Silence; his intensely expressive arco bass on “Black Rain” is among the album’s highlights.
“Often forgotten in the rush to celebrate rhythm and melody is one of music’s most powerful ingredients: complete and utter silence. Few artists today have made quiet a part of their art in more profound ways than Japanese pianist Ayumi Tanaka. The lack of any sound whatsoever, a huge empty space in which the preceding notes can linger and resonate, has become a chief ingredient in her avant and edgy form of improvised free jazz. On ‘Subaqueous Silence’, her musical vision is supported by drummer and percussionist Per Oddvar Johansen whose intricately placed exclamations with shakers and sifting, smoky brushwork is masterful and intriguing. His presence is joined by bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen who plucks and strums with an equal ear for Tanaka’s dedication to a hushed method and ultimately, some measure of musical tranquility. In this her debut as a leader, she uses long pauses in a composition like ‘Ruins’ to great advantage, allowing a note or chord to trail off into complete silence before moving on. Unlike a lot of jazz which tends to overvalue frenetic action and reaction, Tanaka’s minimalist art, spare and full of open space, can embrace a bleak edge. […] Capturing all the richness of her deliberate art, the album was recorded in June 2019 at the Nasjonal Jazzscene Victoria in Oslo, Norway by engineers Daniel Wold and Ingar Hunskaar, and produced by Manfred Eicher. Capturing silence has always been a potent yet overlooked part of Eicher’s distinct aesthetic. […] As her most intimate statement, ‘Subaqueous Silence’, is by its very title, a statement of Tanaka’s belief that music is a fragile, mystical gift, one that demands much from the listener, and is only revealed by careful listening to every note and every empty space, rather than music as background or a gaggle of instrumental voices playing at once. Rarely has silence carried this much meaning” - Robert Baird, Qobuz
“If there’s some kind of fantastical Venn diagram involving Monk, the Wandelweiser Group and Morton Feldman then her first album as leader for ECM surely belongs in the overlap. Sparse, subtle and determined as much by silence as by sound, hers is a music created using deft, fleeting strokes, resulting in uncluttered, cryptic musical statements that for the most part are simply allowed to hang in the air, their context implied rather than stated. The intriguing thing is that there’s a genuine jazz sensibility at work here, but conveyed as if by a hypnotist’s power of suggestion rather than by forthright assertion. This set of short aphoristic pieces will delight anyone already familiar with her work and fascinate willing and receptive newcomers.”
— ★★★★★ BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE, ROGER THOMAS
Release date: 29.10.2021
ECM 2675
ECM Records
Thomas Strønen - Drums, Percussion
Ayumi Tanaka - Piano
Marthe Lea - Clarinet, Vocals, Percussion
A fresh and open music, delicate and space-conscious, is shaped as drummer Thomas Strønen and Ayumi Tanaka, previously heard in the ensemble Time Is A Blind Guide on Lucus, resurface in a new trio with clarinettist/singer/percussionist Marthe Lea. The group first came together at Oslo’s Royal Academy of Music, where for two years the players would meet each week for exploratory music making. Strønen: “We always played freely- drifting between elements of contemporary classical music, folk music, jazz, whatever we were inspired by. Sometimes the music was very quiet and minimalistic: playing together generated some special experiences.” The spontaneous spirit of the music is reflected in the trio’s debut recording, which was made at the Lugano radio studio and produced by Manfred Eicher. With the exception of the title piece, based on a traditional Norwegian tune, the music on Bayou was collectively created in the moment.
”Here every sound has intention and awareness.” - Jon Bungey, London Jazz News
Release date: 09.04.2021
ECM 2633
ECM Records
THOMAS STRØNEN, TIME IS A BLIND GUIDE
Thomas Strønen - Drums
Ayumi Tanaka - Piano
Håkon Aase - Violin
Leo Svensson Sander - Violoncello
Ole Morten Vågan - Double Bass
There’s a rare acoustic alchemy at play in Time Is A Blind Guide. Personnel changes have guided and co-shaped the musical character of Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen’s ensemble and on the group’s third recording we once again experience a slight shift in the line-up, with Leo Svensson Sander replacing Lucy Railton on cello. The new voice blends seamlessly into the quietly breathing ensemble sound, with a sparse but most precise Ayumi Tanaka navigating her way empathetically across the keyboard, responsive to Strønen’s percussive layers, Ole Morten Vågan’s bending double bass work and Håkon Aase’s lyrical violin accounts. At times the group’s three string instruments make up a firm trio-unit that enters into thoughtful dialogue with piano and percussion, but for the most part, the group’s pulse works as a whole, with each instrument dynamically gliding in and out of the picture, captured in well-known acoustics of Rainbow Studio. The album, recorded at Rainbow Studio, Oslo in 2021, and mixed in Munich in 2024, was produced by Manfred Eicher.
Release date: 05.12.2025
ECM 2842
ECM Records
THOMAS STRØNEN, TIME IS A BLIND GUIDE
Thomas Strønen - Drums
Ayumi Tanaka - Piano
Håkon Aase - ViolinLUCUS
Lucy Railton - Violoncello
Ole Morten Vågan - Double Bass
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 fine 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.
Release date: 19.01.2018
ECM 2576
Nakama Records
Ayumi Tanaka - Piano
Johan Lindvall - Piano
Christian Wallumrød - Piano
3 pianos is an album made by a unique piano ensemble consisting of three musicians with different backgrounds and experience. The curiosity for the piano and its countless possibilities was the outset whereas the wish to bend the common boundaries for piano music was the background for this project. The ensemble makes music with clear connections to the music and the ideas of the twentieth century. The musicians develop the material in their own way by focusing on elements like tuning, register, intervals and dynamics. The material includes both written compositions and improvised pieces. The trio has a sophisticated way of instant-composing, and this quality reflects both the musicians individuality as well as there orientation towards interplay.
Release date: 19th November 2016
NKM007
AMP Music & Records
Ayumi Tanaka Trio
Ayumi Tanaka - Piano
Christian Meeas Svendsen - Double bass
Per Oddvar Johansen - Drums
«Memento» is Ayumi Tanaka Trio’s debut album, and a solid statement from the japanese born composer, pianist and band leader. Together with two highly acclaimed norwegian musicians: up and coming Christian Meaas Svendsen on bass and grammy-winning Per Oddvar Johansen on drums, the trio thoroughly explores their unique musical universe thoughout an album that challenges the traditional piano trio format.
Ayumi Tanaka has developed her unique musical persona by drawing from ideas and inspiration found in japanese art, music and philosophy. By carefully examining these influences and then combining them with a strong fascination of nordic jazz, she delivers a very complex and unique statement as a pianist.
The music can be described as free, atmospheric, and melodic with compositions that are mainly based on individual ideas and segments intertwined with free collective improvisation. The compositions are dedicated to Svendsen and Johansen, intentionally leaving a lot of space in order to make use of their strong musicality and creativity.
«Memento» is an album that slowly unfolds itself, that never lacks direction or intent, and that develops beautifully by spontaneous interaction between three strong willed, but selfless musicians
"A new and refreshing, original voice has arrived on the norwegian jazz scene" - Terje Mosnes / Jazz i Norge (NO)
"One of the most fascinating and freshest piano-trio albums I have heard since I started to write about »Nordic Music«. What a delight!" - Ingo J. Biermann / Nordische Musikk (DE)
Release date : January 2016