Award-winning pianist and composer Tom Oren unveils Dark Lights, a bold and deeply personal new trio recording featuring Elam Friedlander on bass and Eviatar Slivnik on drums. Available worldwide on Anzic Records beginning February 20, 2026, the album captures Oren’s remarkable fusion of monster jazz piano technique, cinematic storytelling, and expansive imagination. Winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition, Oren continues to affirm his reputation as one of the most compelling creative forces of his generation.
Founded on fluent three-way interplay, Dark Lights presents six original compositions and three arrangements that showcase Oren’s fearless improvisational voice. Throughout the album, he unleashes daring polyphony, unexpected harmonic combinations, and an unending stream of melodic invention, all unfolding in dynamic conversation with Friedlander and Slivnik. The trio’s cohesion allows Oren to transcend the confines of the studio and access the spontaneous intensity he associates with live performance — balancing devotion to written composition with deep commitment to the moment.
In 2023, the year of the recording, Oren had already built an extraordinary résumé before turning 30. In 2018, he captured first prize at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition, earning global recognition for his interpretive brilliance. Alongside his thriving jazz career, he established himself as a gifted film composer. In 2021, he created a vivid, kaleidoscopic score for acclaimed director Avi Nesher’s award-winning feature film Image of Victory, later released in 2022 on Milan Records, a division of Sony Music Masterworks. The score blended classical influences with a cross-era jazz sensibility, further expanding Oren’s artistic scope.
By 2026, Oren continues to broaden his creative footprint. He is composing a second film score for Avi Nesher, collaborating in piano-voice settings with Serbian singer Tamara Jokić on an upcoming album, and working with Israeli pop star Tamir Greenberg. Simultaneously, he is cultivating an alternate stream of expression as a singer-songwriter-guitarist, demonstrating a versatility that mirrors the stylistic range heard on Dark Lights.
Oren describes Dark Lights as “the second chapter of my recorded musical journal.” The first chapter, Dorly’s Song, released in 2020 on Concord Records, featured ten striking arrangements of songs by his mother and first teacher, Dorly Oren-Chazon — a renowned pianist, composer, lyricist, and innovative music pedagogue. Reflecting on the years between the two albums, Oren credits his growth to learning how to approach music with seriousness and respect while remaining inwardly at peace — allowing spontaneity to coexist with discipline.
The album’s title track, composed when Oren was just 17, unfolds as a two-part opus exploring darkness as a leap into the unknown — reaching forward with courage and faith. The opening section surges with turbulent minor chords and dark melodies that fuel a warp-speed improvisation, before resolving into a stately meditation. Even the most innocent melodic ideas carry an edge, “born out of the night,” as Oren describes it.
The mysterious waltz-like motif of “Fantasy in C Sharp Minor” opens the program, gradually introducing listeners to the album’s sonic world. Structured with classical sonata principles of exposition, development, and recapitulation, the piece builds toward a vertiginous contrapuntal climax before resolving into a vamp that frames Slivnik’s fiery drum solo. Oren’s playful 9/8 arrangement of “Out of Nowhere,” developed during his time at Berklee College of Music, reflects bebop lineage while boldly venturing into new rhythmic territory. His contrapuntal composition “Forest Conference” conjures a nocturnal tribal gathering, culminating in Friedlander’s lyrical bass solo as the imagined assembly disperses.
Oren also transforms Dorly Oren-Chazon’s “Inner Demon Inner Game” from a ballad into an exhilarating up-tempo swing showcase, demonstrating breathtaking command of bebop vocabulary. His straight-eighth arrangement of “Stella By Starlight” retains melodic fidelity while introducing his own harmonic architecture. “Goodbye Alyosha,” inspired by Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, channels literary reflection into kaleidoscopic improvisation. “Throwing Pebbles,” a rubato ballad featuring Friedlander’s pizzicato bass, evokes two figures by a lake in quiet conversation, revealing Oren’s classical touch and lyrical sensitivity. The album closes with “Dawn of Adventure,” an affirming statement whose spirit echoes the uplift of Oscar Peterson and the improvisational freedom of Keith Jarrett — a symbolic bird in the sky above an otherwise shadowed palette.
Oren’s performance calendar reflects his global reach. On February 22 and February 28, he joins Terence Blanchard for performances of the opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts and Leighton Concert Hall, respectively. On March 12, he appears with the Meital Waldmann 4tet at the Manhattan JCC for an EP release concert. April 10 finds him performing with Tamir Greenberg and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at Heichal Hatarbut Tel Aviv. On April 17, he co-leads a performance with Yonatan Hadas and Joca Perpingnan at the Eretz Israel Museum as part of the Hakatedra series, and on April 23 he appears at Ztuker Hall at Heichal Hatarbut with Elam Friedlander, Alon Benjamini on drums, and special guests.
Praised by producers Oded Lev-Ari and Anat Cohen for his staggering musical diversity and profound listening abilities, Oren stands at the forefront of a new generation of jazz artists — one equally fluent in tradition and innovation. With Dark Lights, he delivers a compelling chapter in his evolving musical journal, illuminating shadow and radiance in equal measure.
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