Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, an ECM musician for more than fifty years, is a masterful player who has always welcomed a challenge. His first recording with his new quartet – including rising stars Marius Neset and Helge Lien (both bandleaders in their own right)– is almost entirely improvised. The players make the leap of faith together and find and develop forms at the moment, an object lesson in spontaneous group creativity. Affirmation was recorded in November 2021 at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio.

An inspired exercise in improvisational alchemy, it takes the form of the seven group extemporisations of ‘Affirmation Parts 1 and 2’, plus a closing Andersen composition, the melodic ‘Short Story’. Andersen’s spare bass articulations open Affirmation Part 1 unveiling a beguiling sound world of glistering piano, hissing cymbals, eloquent tenor saxophone and Andersen’s atmospheric pedal effects, all of which ebb and flow throughout the album, setting the scene for muscular outbursts and haunting meditations. Lingering sax phrases echo through spectral soundscapes, or take on edge and urgency before settling into a luscious, ballad-like conclusion, all threaded through with Andersen’s majestic, ever-authoritative bass.Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman