Tord Gustavsen - What Was Said (2016)

Artist: Tord Gustavsen
Title Of Album: What Was Said
Year Of Release: 2016
Label (Catalog#): ECM Records [ECM 2465]
Country: Norway
Genre: Contemporary Jazz / Chamber Jazz / Nordic Folk
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue,log,scans)
Bitrate: Lossless
Time: 59:52
Full Size: 420 MB


What was said brings new colours to Tord Gustavsen’s musical palette. His latest trio project builds upon the subtle understanding of his long musical association with drummer Jarle Vespestad, introduces German-Afghan vocalist Simin Tander, and explores the tradition of Norwegian church music in untraditional ways: “For the repertoire of the new project, Simin and I have been working with Afghan poet B. Hamsaaya, translating and shaping a selection of hymns that I grew up with in Norway into Pashto,” Gustavsen explains. “This process has been challenging and really fruitful. We have gone quite far in interpreting the lyrics in a more ‘integral’ manner, reaching into a space where I feel that Sufism and Christianity actually meet.”

Simin Tander also sings, in English, verse of Persian mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-73) and US proto-Beat poet Kenneth Rexroth (1905-82). As a pure play of sounds, too, the combination of Tander’s voice and Gustavsen’s piano and discreet electronics has an emotional persuasiveness of its own, outside the limits of language. The trio takes its programme of “hymns and visions” to the concert halls and clubs of Europe in the first months of 2016.

Tracklist:

01 - Your Grief
02 - I See You
03 - Imagine The Fog Disappearing
04 - A Castle In Heaven
05 - Journey Of Life
06 - I Refuse
07 - What Was Said To The Rose-O Sacred Head
08 - The Way You Play My Heart
09 - Rull
10 - The Source Of Now
11 - Sweet Melting
12 - Longing To Praise Thee
13 - Sweet Melting Afterglow

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Tord Gustavsen - Piano, Electronics, Synth Bass
Simin Tander - Voice
Jarle Vespestad - Drums

What Was Said was recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in April 2015 and produced by Manfred Eicher.