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Norwegian Thomas Strønen is a prolific drummer, composer, arranger, improviser, producer, and bandleader. He has participated in or self-created some 70 albums on his own and in cooperation with a wide variety of talent, including the bands Food (with Iain Ballamy, Arve Henriksen, Mats Eilertsen, and Fennesz), Humcrush (with Ståle Storløkken), Parish (with Bobo Stenson), his own Time Is a Blind Guide, Eilertsen's trio with Harmen Fraanje, and the Maria Kannegaard Trio. He has also played on and/or composed for recordings by Eivind Aarset, Nils Petter Molvaer, John Taylor, Tore Brunborg, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Sidsel Endresen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Tomasz Stańko, and Stian Carstensen. Strønen graduated from the Music Conservatory of Trondheim, Norway in 1999 after studying jazz and composition for six years. Since his student days he has been involved with improvised music in many different contexts. He is an interactive musician who enjoys creating different musical forms to generate unexpected results. Strønen is a melodic, almost circular drummer who plays both acoustic and electronic music. He has record deals with Norway's Rune Grammofon and ECM. His most celebrated recordings are Humcrush (2004), Parish (2006), six Food albums divided between the two labels from 2002-2015, and two Time Is a Blind Guide albums, including 2018's Lucus. Also noteworthy are his three albums with Mats Eilertsen's trio, particularly 2019's And Then Comes the Night. ~ Thom Jurek
