There’s an uncommon acoustic chemistry at the heart of Time Is A Blind Guide, the long-evolving ensemble led by Norwegian drummer and composer Thomas Strønen. On Off Stillness—the group’s third album and its first since 2018’s acclaimed Lucus—a subtle shift in personnel shapes a renewed sonic identity. Cellist Leo Svensson Sander steps into the role previously held by Lucy Railton, weaving effortlessly into the ensemble’s breathlike blend of strings, piano, and percussion. His interaction with violinist Håkon Aase and bassist Ole Morten Vågan creates a resilient trio within the quintet, one that moves fluidly in dialogue with Ayumi Tanaka’s spacious, intuitive piano work and Strønen’s textural percussion.
Strønen describes the music as being “about taking away rather than adding,” emphasizing space as a guiding instrument. The album’s dynamic breadth ranges from near-silence to sudden swells of collective intensity—gestures that feel unpredictable yet deeply connected to natural rhythms and everyday pulses. Those extremes find a striking example in “Dismissed,” driven by abrupt rhythmic stumbles, articulated ensemble bursts, and tightly knit improvisations. In contrast, “Season” brings lyrical warmth, the cello and violin merging in serene folk-hued harmony—a reflection of Leo’s improvisational style and his deep background in folk music, which naturally connects with Aase’s approach.
The core qualities that defined TIABG on Lucus—its philosophical openness, its dialogue between baroque structures and folk sensibilities, its devotion to fragile beauty—resurface throughout Off Stillness. Pieces such as “Fall” draw listeners into a chilled quiet, where every bow stroke and cymbal whisper feels weighty and deliberate. “Tuesday” pares things back even further, while “Cubism” introduces a rare moment of explicit rhythmic grounding.
Homage threads through the album’s conceptual frame. “Memories of Paul,” the opener, honors both Paul Motian and Paul Bley—two figures who left their imprint on ECM’s lineage and on Strønen’s musical imagination. The piece, nearly devoid of harmonic center, spotlights Strønen’s and Tanaka’s intuitive rapport: “We don’t need to talk beforehand,” Strønen notes. “I have complete trust in her.” Producer Manfred Eicher shaped the recording with a perceptive ear, selecting an unexpected take that reframed the piece’s emotional arc in the context of the entire album.
The closing “In Awe of Stillness” acts as a microcosm of the album—beginning with exploratory textures before giving way to agitated interplay. And the album’s title, Off Stillness, carries personal resonance. Strønen recalls sneaking into a café at age 15 to hear Jon Balke’s Oslo 13, an encounter that transformed his understanding of music. With Balke turning 70 this year, the title serves as a quiet tribute to that formative spark.
Recorded at Rainbow Studio in Oslo in 2021 and mixed in Munich in 2024, Off Stillness continues Strønen’s rich history with ECM, a relationship that began with the 2005 album Parish and has since unfolded through projects such as Food, collaborations with Mats Eilertsen, Sinikka Langeland, John Surman, and many more. Time Is A Blind Guide, founded in 2013, remains one of his most expansive and conceptually unified ensembles—a place where genre boundaries dissolve into texture, breath, and movement.
Ayumi Tanaka’s own ECM catalog continues to grow, including her 2021 leader debut Subaqueous Silence. More work from her, and from TIABG’s evolving soundworld, is on the horizon.
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