Extended Circle

The sixth ECM album from Tord Gustavsen, recorded in Oslo in June 2013, quietly but most assuredly takes the Norwegian pianist's music to the next stage of its development.

Gustavsen's quartet with Tore Brunborg, Mats Eilertsen and long-term associate Jarle Vespestad has matured into a group whose interactions draw strength from restraint, patiently building the music toward its climaxes. Here are new gospel-tinged pieces and ballads from Tord's pen, gentle and luminescent group improvisations, and an ecstatic interpretation of the Norwegian traditional "Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei Borg" ("I Know A Castle In Heaven").