Tord Gustavsen Trio: Seeing

A moving stillness undergirds and empowers Seeing, pianist Tord Gustavsen's tenth triumph for ECM. From the scraping arc through the first mood shift of "Jesus, Make Me Still" it is possible to lock in on the blue gospel vibe and shut the door to the cluttered details and emails of the day.

And never mind song titles like the above or "The Old Church," "Beneath Your Wisdom" or "Nearer My God, To Thee." For three guys from the western extent of the Scandinavian Peninsula—Gustavsen, long-standing drummer Jarle Vespestad and returning bassist Steinar Raknes from Opening (ECM, 2022)—there is a mighty amount of down-home soul n grit at play.

This makes "Seattle Song," the summary Gustavsen original a real beauty. It becomes a theme for every man or woman heading off into the unknown day. It serves as a chronicle, a beacon, a harbor. It tells of travel and rest and the love encountered along the way. And it sounds as real and ingrained in the muscle memory of music as the hymns Gustavsen has arranged preceding it.

So be it traditional Norwegian or American folk hymns, originals, or Bach introspections, there is a serene, full-body ease to all ten performances. No extended solos or live, caught-up-in-the-rush-of-the-moment virtuosic hijinks. With that approach agreed upon by each, the beautifully rendered namesake track harkens effortlessly into Bach's four-hundred-year-old cantata "Christ Lag In the Bands of Death." Raknes' haunted bass lays the architecture for more Bach ("Auf Meinen Lieben Gott") and Gustavsen's lux musing "Extended Circle."

Even at a sparse forty-four minutes, Seeing is a timeless listen, making it hard to reckon and equally foolish to say that Seeing may very well be Gustavsen and company's high-water mark at this particular point in our troubled timeline. But it may very well be. An efficiency of shape the pianist describes might be true for the trio and the venerable Manfred Eicher, but for listeners, those shapes morph to moments and moments can be shaped any way. This moment is shaped by Seeing.

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