Photo: Knut Bry.
Composer, percussionist, producer and instructor
At the Norwegian Academy of Music, Thomas Pohlitz Strønen works with the self-appointed discipline percussion ensemble and teaches students about band interaction and improvisation. Strønen also provides workshops in live electronics and composition and supervises Master's students.
The percussion ensemble Extended Ground was formed by Strønen in 2012 and has since then developed its didactic approach to rhythmics as an interdisciplinary form. The music, composed by Strønen, is interpreted by ear (though, noted on score) through group interaction and deals with expanded concepts of rhythm within polyphonic music, a-rhythmic music, time signatures, timbre and texture. Extended Ground plays concerts in Norway and abroad, with soloists such as Nils Petter Molvær, Eivind Aarset, Arve Henriksen, Christian Wallumrød, Prakash Sontakke (IN), Iain Ballamy (UK) and others, and has toured in the Nordics, Gambia and Brazil.
As a supervisor and educator, Strønen is concerned with the tactile in music, premises for interaction and improvisation, and instrument mastery with a significant focus on sound.
Thomas Pohlitz Strønen has a background from the Jazz Academy ('Jazzlinja') at NTNU in Trondheim and has since 1999 been an active and pioneering drummer and composer on the European jazz scene. He has participated in more than 80 record releases, been signed with his ensembles on ECM Records since 2005, composed commissioned works for the BBC, NRK, The Norwegian Opera & Ballet, and composed the signature melodies for Kilden Kulturhus in Kristiansand. Strønen won a Norwegian Grammy award in the jazz category in 2019 and 2020 with the Mats Eilertsen trio and Maria Kannegaard trio, respectively.
He is currently active as a performer and composer in his own ensembles, Time is a blind guide, Tanaka/Lea/Strønen, and Snah/Strønen (Hans Magnus' Snah' Ryan / Motorpsycho).
Since 1999, Thomas Strønen has composed, recorded and toured large parts of the world with musicians such as John Taylor, Christian Fennesz, Bobo Stenson, Sidsel Endresen, Eivind Aarset, Nils Petter Molvær, Jim O 'Rourke, Koichi Makigami, Barry Guy, Ståle Storløkken, Iain Ballamy, Christian Wallumrød, Harmen Franje, Maria Kannegaard, Prakash Sontakke, Arve Henriksen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Ernst Reijseger, Tomasz Stanko, Ingebrigt Flaten, Morten Qvenild, Tore Brunborg, Anders Jormin, Per Jørgensen, Jon Balke, Fredrik Ljungkvist , Sinikka Langeland, Bjørnar Andresen, Vidar Johansen, London Sinfonietta, Emulsion Sinfonietta, a.o.
Selected works and composition
- «Bobo»: Commissioned work for Nordbotten Big band with Bobo Stenson as a soloist, performed in connection with Stenson's 75th birthday. Duration 25 minutes.
- «Conversations with trees»: Commissioned work (concert, 75 minutes) for Reading Fringe Festival (UK), performed in 2019.
- «Extended Blind Guide to India»: Commissioned work for the Oslo World Festival. 75 minutes for chamber ensemble, percussion ensemble, vocals and steel guitar.
- «Lemur»: Commissioned work for the Emulsion Sinfonietta, performed on 4 July 2015 at the Cheltenham Music Festival. Durata 20 minutes for Sinfonietta.
- «Sylvia»: Commissioned work for theatre performance at Drama Theater, Tallinn, Estonia.
- «Civilization and its Discontents»: Theater performance by Mark Hewitt, Brighton, UK.
- «On dreamy sea»: Music/installation with Knut Bry for Kjersti Alveberg, The Norwegian Opera.
- «Exquisite Pain»: Sophie Calle. Theater in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense, DK.
- «Food/Emulsion»: Emulsion Sinfonietta, UK. Works for Sinfonietta, 15 minutes.
- «Time is a blind guide»: Commissioned work for Conexions, NRK/BBC.
- «Badnajazz»: Vossajazz Commissioned work for children. Works for 25 percussionists, saxophone, electronics and video.
- «The sound of the Source»: Winner of the composition competition «Klangen av Kilden» – the soundtrack to Kilden's (Kristiansand) various concert rooms. Watch The Sound of the Source on YouTube.
- «Extended Ground»: Works for eight percussionists, trumpet and guitar (Arve Henriksen / Eivind Aarset / Extended Ground) 60 minutes.
- «Urban X»: Works for percussion, electronics and keyboards (30 minutes) composed for the Norwegian Opera and Ballet.
- «Food/Fennesz»: Commissioned work for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, 2010. Performed by Food with Christian Fennesz. Parts of the work were released on ECM Records.
- «The snail house»: Film music. Documentary for TV2, Sneglehuset.
- «Grieg 2007»: Specially composed music for string quartet and percussion/electronics in connection with the celebration of Edvard Grieg's 100th anniversary in the UK, 55 minutes of music.
Publications
- Konsert med Voxpheria på Kafe Hærverk 2018
- Turne med Voxpheria 2016
- Åse/Strønens Voxpheria på Biermannsgården 2015
- Expanding the vocalist’s role through the use of live electronics in realtime improvisation 2014
- Voxpheria - konsert Inderøy 2014
- Voxpheria kunstnerisk innslag 2014
- Voxpheria konsert Dokkhuset 2014
- Turne med Live Maria Roggen i Tyskland 2007 2007
- Erlend Skomsvoll "Variasjoner" 2006
- Turne i Tyskland 2006