This a wonderfully concentrated recording from Gustavsen.
ECM 2820 / 651 6879
Tord Gustavsen (piano); Steinar Raknes (double bass); Jarle Vespestad (drums)
Recorded October 2023
This a wonderfully concentrated recording from Gustavsen. As such there is little in the way of extended solos with the focus on the compositions and the interplay between the trio. It is this intense concentration and focus in these ten pieces performed that highlights a new phase in the pianist’s music, and as he says “reflects my personal development as I get older, going for the essentials in life and music. To this end the playing seems to reach a pinnacle of perfection in those moments where everything coalesces at precisely the right time to create peaks in the music that make the hair stand up on the back of the neck.
The material is very carefully selected with five original compositions and a solo piano interlude interspersed among a traditional Norwegian hymn, a 19th century English chorale and two Bach cantatas.
Opening with the traditional hymn ‘Jesus, gjør meg stille’ sets the melody against the slightly disturbing backdrop created by bass and drums and the intensity is at times quite overwhelming. The tension is then wonderfully released with Gustavsen’s ‘The Old Church’ with its subtle reference to gospel music, and the gentle, lyrical interplay of the trio as the composition unfolds.
And this is the manner in which the pianist has laid out his music with ‘Extended Circle’ another piece that takes its time to reveal itself, and features an impressive solo from Raknes with his warm woody sound that he coaxes from his double bass. ‘Seattle Song’ it transpires is based on an idea that came to Gustavsen at a sound check prior to a concert. Initially to be developed as solo piano piece, bass and drums spontaneously joined in and so the song became another for the trio.
Repeated listening to Seeing has revealed just how suited the Bach cantatas and Lowell Mason’s ‘Nearer My God to Thee’ are to Gustavsen’s less is more approach. Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ is almost teased out of the piano by Gustavsen and bassist Raknes’s arco playing a delight, while the trio take an altogether tougher approach to the composer’s ‘Auf meinen lieben Gott’.
The beauty and fragility of the playing of ‘Nearer My God to Me’ is allowed to build to a crescendo before dropping back to quiet reverie is so powerfully intense that the pianist’s aforementioned ‘Seattle Song’ provides welcome relief to close this excellent recording.
