CD ECM Records Tord Gustavsen Trio: Being There

2007

Tord Gustavsen - pian
Harald Johnson - contrabas
Jarle Vespestad - tobe

Jazzreview - Editor’s Choice; Jazz Magazine - Disque d'émoi; Jazzman - Choc du mois; Piano News - CD des Doppelmonats

Pianist/composer Tord Gustavsen and his collaborators, Harald Johnsen and Jarle Vespestad, have crafted a dozen contemplative wonders on Being There. Opener “At Home” is a quiet, impressionistic piece. It has a subtle melodic quality, performed with a good deal of patience, yet it has an intriguing cinematic feel. … “Still There” is one of several hymns offering a fascinating interplay between abstraction and gospel roots.
Billboard

This is the final part of a trilogy of piano trio albums that began with Changing Places and continued with The Ground, the whole comprising what could be the most essential jazz document of the last 10 years. Being There keeps to a similar feel: slow, limpid, ballads and “wordless hymns” where a sense of stillness is always present, however much the music rocks on its heels through gospel-influenced chording. … This is the chill-out as a state of grace, and it can go as deep as you like. Sublime.
Phil Johnson, Independent on Sunday

Gustavsen’s tunes are hypnotically strong, and the integration of bass and drums in his regular trio is total. … It’s possible for even hardcore jazzers to get the point about Tord Gustavsen. This one just did.
John Fordham, The Guardian

Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen views “Being There” as the third instalment of a trilogy that began with “Changing Places” (recorded 2001 and 2002) and continued with “The Ground” (recorded 2004). On “Being There” the music’s priorities are maintained. The album’s title is borrowed from a tune on “The Ground”, intentionally stressing the continuity of the music, and also underlining its working concept, characterized by Gustavsen as “being acutely present, aware and focused in the fullness of the moment. The group has a definite direction or sound, but there are still many nuances to explore.” Gustavsen’s clearly-delineated melodies define a large part of the group’s sonic identity, but so does the manner in which the trio approaches them. Technical flamboyance has almost no role to play in Gustavsen’s sound-world: restraint is one of the music’s hallmarks. “On the one hand”, he notes, “this is a matter of discipline, but it’s a discipline inspired by a love of spaces, not by some anorectic minimalist ideology. It’s about ‘loving every note’ – to phrase it as a slogan – or about trying to play what you’d actually like to hear rather than what you think you ought to play.” This ‘holding back’ allows room for other musical developments to flower naturally, one of which has been the drifting of Jarle Vespestad’s drums towards the centre of the sound: the drums are, as Gustavsen says, a crucial component of the music. If this has been a tendency of performances in the live setting almost from the beginning, it is especially evident on “Being There”.



Pianist/composer Tord Gustavsen and his collaborators, Harald Johnsen and Jarle Vespestad, have crafted a dozen contemplative wonders on Being There. Opener “At Home” is a quiet, impressionistic piece. It has a subtle melodic quality, performed with a good deal of patience, yet it has an intriguing cinematic feel. … “Still There” is one of several hymns offering a fascinating interplay between abstraction and gospel roots.
Billboard

This is the final part of a trilogy of piano trio albums that began with Changing Places and continued with The Ground, the whole comprising what could be the most essential jazz document of the last 10 years. Being There keeps to a similar feel: slow, limpid, ballads and “wordless hymns” where a sense of stillness is always present, however much the music rocks on its heels through gospel-influenced chording. … This is the chill-out as a state of grace, and it can go as deep as you like. Sublime.
Phil Johnson, Independent on Sunday

Gustavsen’s tunes are hypnotically strong, and the integration of bass and drums in his regular trio is total. … It’s possible for even hardcore jazzers to get the point about Tord Gustavsen. This one just did.
John Fordham, The Guardian