Extended Circle by Tord Gustavsen Quartet

The superstar Norwegian pianist’s sixth album marks the completion of a ‘double circle’ of trilogies: the first with the trio, heard on Changing Places, The Ground and Being There, and the second with the quartet, heard on the expanded ensemble of Restored, Returned and then fully documented on 2012’s The Well. More circular motifs are to be found, such the reprise of the group improvisation, ‘Embrace’, later in the playing order, or the way album-closing ‘The Prodigal Song’ recalls opener ‘Right There’, as if inviting you to keep playing the album forever. Says Tord Gustavsen, ‘The modernistic notion of linear progress is dead … But still we want to move in creative circles or spirals, coming back to musical and spiritual issues from ever-new angles, developing the musical approach or ideology with – hopefully – a deeper insight, a deeper set of experiences and skills.’

Despite the Gustavsen trio’s immense popularity, the music has had its share of detractors, finding an anodyne monotony where others found inspiration or tranquility. Gustvasen’s quartet (with Tore Brunborg on tenor saxophone, Mats Eilertsenon on bass, and Jarle Vespestad on drums) has now matured into a group fully in control of its destiny, able to follow every musical thought to its conclusion and develop a wider variety of sound-worlds than before. The tunes are mainly Gustavsen gospel pieces and ballads, but there is a directness and slow-burning fire to tunes like the immensely stirring ‘Staying There’ (surely a hit single in Norway, where Gustavsen regularly approached the top of the pop albums chart), or the group’s propulsive, syncopated arrangement of the Norwegian folk tune ‘Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei Borg’ (‘A Castle in Heaven’), which harks back to the classic pastoral-meets-free jazz records of such groups as the Jan Garbarek and Bobo Stenson quartet or Keith Jarrett’s famous European and American quartets.

As these comparisons might suggest, Brunborg, in particular, is growing into a major force who may yet eclipse his boss. Listen, for instance, to his simply ravishing, slower than slow intro to ‘Devotion’. Brunborg’s heart-on-sleeve approach is in such demand that in addition to this gig he serves as the first-call tenor for Manu Katche and Ketil Bjornstadt, among others – watch this space for the inevitable solo album some day.

As the group’s mutual understanding has grown, so has the freedom the leader allots his players – there is no longer the sense that it’s Tord’s show alone, and that each piece needs to go home at a programmed time. Witness Eilertson’s lovely, palate-cleansing, unaccompanied ‘Bass Transition’, or the way he simultaneously supports and counters the gorgeous piano melody of ‘Right There’. Or the way Vespestad’s drums bubble under the already mentioned ‘Castle in Heaven’: the drummer is a force of nature, in ever-changing motion like a boxer circling his opponent, looking for an opening that never presents itself.

Extended Circle is like documentation of a group at the turning point, of perfecting a new way of working sans formula or template. It’s been a pleasure cycling through it over the several days I’ve had to digest it so far as different pieces filter to the forefront of my attention, and I expect more to reveal themselves with each further listen.


Richard Mohr