The album title – Words Unspoken – alludes to the instant musical understanding found by the members of this nimble quartet assembled by great British reedman John Surman. „My idea was to put together some musical ideas that would offer a collective sense of purpose but still be open enough to allow each of us to suggest other ways of developing the material together. Everything fell into place immediately. But I soon realized it wasn‘t so much the musical ideas that made it work, it was the musicians.”

"Time Is A Blind Guide" is both the title of this debut album and the name of Thomas Strønen’s Norwegian-British ensemble. In contrast to Strønen’s previous electronic work, TIABG is an all-acoustic group playing what its drummer-leader-composer calls "melodic music with a twist". Its melodies unfurl sinuously over shifting rhythmic patterns, incorporating a number of overlapping musical subgroups. On several songs Strønen is joined by two guest percussionists, who assert strong and solid grooves, allowing Strønen to play freely on top of the rhythms and to interact dynamically with outstanding young English pianist Kit Downes.

The British/Norwegian Food duo of Iain Ballamy and Thomas Strønen are joined again by Austrian guitarist and electronics player Christian Fennesz for a new album of powerful grooves, evocative textures and exploratory improvisation, sometimes hypnotically insistent, sometimes turbulent. The project was recorded with engineer Ulf Holand and mixed together with Manfred Eicher the first time Eicher and Holand have collaborated since Nils Petter Molvaer's Khmer, almost 20 years ago. Thomas Strønen describes the sound of "This Is Not A Miracle" as heavier, dryer, connecting more with how we actually sound live.

The group Food has defined a new kind of lyrical electroacoustic improvisation since its founding as a quartet in 1998. Now a core duo of UK saxophonist Iain Ballamy and Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen, they are joined by guests as needed for various projects. Following live dates in Norway in 2007 and 2008 with trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær and Austrian improvising guitarist Christian Fennesz, the four musicians headed into the studio to record the highly praised "Quiet Inlet", resplendent with melodic improvisation, trancelike pulses and shifting clouds of sound.

"Djupet" began as a commissioned work co-composed by Jo Berger Myhre and Erlend Viken for the Ultima Festival and Riksscenen in 2020. Together, with dancers Ida Wigdel, Ådne Kolbjørnhus and Katja Schia, they explored the common ecstatic potential of, and the links between, folk, improvisational and electronic dance music. Thomas Pohlitz Strønen was producer, and when they recorded the music the week after the premiere, the duo became a trio.

The Food team of Norwegian drummer Strønen and British saxophonist Ballamy continues to invite guests to bring something to the table. The form-and-texture conscious improvisations here are drawn from live performances in Norway, England and Germany and studio sessions at Oslo’s Rainbow. To the latter group belong tracks on which Indian slide guitarist and singer Prakash Sontakke is partnered by Eivind Aarset’s atmospheric guitar and electronics. The first half of the album finds Food augmented by Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz, taking further the experiments with layers of sound begun on "Quiet Inlet". Nils Petter Molvær joins Strønen, Ballamy and Fennesz for a track recorded at Mannheim’s Enjoy Jazz Festival.