Tord Gustavsen Trio

This is music that sings, at once gentle and robust. Lyrical, immediately memorable songs, songs of an appealing freshness, yet sophisticated in their involvement with the melodic line.



In the seven years that have elapsed since the recording of a debut album that proved both a popular and a critical success, Tord Gustavsen has toured extensively in trio, and more recently quartet and quintet format; crystallizing the musical approach and developing new compositions. The second album "The Ground" was released in 2005; and in 2007 the trilogy of trio albums was completed with "Being There". Now, in 2010, the extended Tord Gustavsen Ensemble releases an album called "Restored, Returned", featuring vocalist Kristin Asbjørnsen and saxophonist Tore Brunborg along with Jarle Vespestad on drums, Mats Eilertsen on bass, and Tord Gustavsen on piano. The music comes from a commissioned work written for the Vossajazz festival in Norway 2008, although re-worked and transformed through live playing over time.



Tord's approach is developed further on this record, adding new elements to the soundscape but maintaining the search for radical, stripped-down beauty (something totally different from sweetness or smoothness). The ensemble is all about exploring the finer nuances in interplay, and the album highlights the different internal duos, trios and quartets within the quintet much more than going for the full force of all five musicians playing together.



As cornerstones for Tord Gustavsen's writing stand the concepts of the abstract lullaby and the wordless hymn. Harmonic complexity, rhythmic hipness, techincal virtuosity -- while certainly entering the picture when appropriate, these things are all fundamentally subordinate to cherishing the melodies and stating them as subtly and faithfully as possible.



The new recording also presents songs written to poems by W. H. Auden, taken from his collection "Another Time", integrated into the musical journey with purely instrumental pieces, and pieces with wordless singing.



Check out this All Things Considered interview with Tord Gustavsen on NPR.