Ayumi Tanaka: Windflower

“Sparse, subtle, and shaped as much by silence as by sound—her music emerges from delicate, fleeting gestures,” wrote BBC Music Magazine about Ayumi Tanaka’s album *Subaqueous Silence*. With *Windflower*, the pianist once again demonstrates the power of a musical approach in which intensity arises from restraint and concentration. This time, however, the music is largely a collaborative creative process in which all three musicians shape the pieces together as they play. Ayumi Tanaka, who was born in Wakayama and now lives in Oslo, has been collaborating with Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen for a decade—including in his band Time Is A Blind Guide and in the trio Bayou with saxophonist and singer Marthe Lea. Her collaboration with the American double bassist Thomas Morgan, on the other hand, is a recent development. The three musicians immediately found a shared musical connection when they performed together for the first time in September 2024 at the Nasjonal Jazz Scene Victoria in Oslo. At the suggestion of producer Manfred Eicher, they recorded *Windflower* in May 2025 at La Buissonne Studios in southern France. The album, which features eight luminous free ballads as well as Ayumi Tanaka’s composition “La Source,” is being released just before an international tour with concerts in Norway, France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland.