" data-original-title="" title="">Tord Gustavsen's first three piano trio albums sold in unimaginable quantities, made him an unlikely star in his native Norway, and established him internationally. He became the living embodiment of the ECM sound—quiet, contemplative, solemn, spacious. In fact, so spacious, that at gigs one would sometimes wait a seeming eternity for the arrival of the next tinkling arpeggio, the next scrape of a fingernail across the snare drum, or growling bass slide. Minimalist it most certainly is, but putting this album on in the background would be an abuse of the music: Opening casts a spell which only works when one sits quietly and really listens.

After 2007, Gustavsen worked on non-trio projects for more than a decade, several of them involving vocalists, only returning to the trio format with 2018's The Other Side. This new album sees him back on the territory he first made his own with his debut release Changing Places, and its follow-up The Ground. Drummer