Windflower introduces a new ECM trio: the Japanese pianist Ayumi Tanaka, the US bassist Thomas Morgan and the Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen. Eight of its nine pieces were created collectively in the moment, and the ninth is an open arrangement of Tanaka's own La Source. The result is a record of free ballads, quiet and patient, in which restraint carries the intensity. The title refers to the anemone, a flower that in several cultures stands for the transience of beauty.
Tanaka was born in Wakayama and played classical and contemporary music in Japan before moving to Oslo in 2011, where Misha Alperin became her mentor. She has worked with Strønen for about a decade, in his ensemble Time Is A Blind Guide and in the trio heard on Bayou with Marthe Lea. Morgan, who made his ECM debut with John Abercrombie's quartet in 2008, is the newcomer here. The three first played together at Nasjonal Jazz Scene Victoria in Oslo in September 2024, and producer Manfred Eicher suggested they record. The album was made at Studios La Buissonne in Pernes-les-Fontaines in May 2025 with engineer Gérard de Haro, then mixed in Munich by Eicher and Michael Hinreiner.
The stark patterning of Strønen's drums opens the title track and clears a space in which the three can interact. On Tree of Stars Morgan threads a melodic bass line through the gently glittering phrasing of the piano, a passage ECM counts among the album's highlights. Driftwood, the longest piece, starts from a pensive bass figure and settles into what one critic called gently swinging post-bop. Tanaka avoids flashy soloing, preferring wide melodies over lush chords and uncommon arpeggios.
Tanaka has described her aim in her own words: "I want to compose music which sounds like an improvisation, and to improvise music that sounds like it has been written." Of her 2021 trio album Subaqueous Silence, The Wire wrote that "Tanaka makes every note count." Michael Toland reviewed Windflower for The Big Takeover in 2026. He heard Strønen keeping closer to a steady groove than usual, and concluded that "the music on Windflower is for listening rooms, rather than nightclubs." On marlbank, Stephen Graham judged it stronger than Subaqueous Silence, while still ranking Bayou as her best record.
This is the CD edition, ECM 2859, released on 21 August 2026.
