Jacob Young, Trygve Seim, Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz, Michal Miskiewicz

Forever Young is the third ECM album by the Norwegian-American guitarist Jacob Young, after Evening Falls in 2004 and Sideways. It brings together two long friendships: his partnership with the saxophonist Trygve Seim, which goes back to their school days, and the twenty-year history of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio from Poland. All ten pieces are Young's, melodic and harmonically detailed jazz played by a quintet meeting for the first time in this form.

On his earlier ECM records Young was the only chordal instrument, in settings built around trumpet and bass clarinet. Here he shares that role with the piano of Wasilewski, with Slawomir Kurkiewicz on double bass and Michal Miskiewicz on drums. This was Young's first meeting on record with the Poles, although Seim had already played at length with Wasilewski and Kurkiewicz in Manu Katché's touring band. According to The Guardian, the idea grew from an encounter with Wasilewski at the Oslo Jazz Festival in 2012. The album was recorded in August 2013 at Rainbow Studio in Oslo, with Jan Erik Kongshaug as engineer and Manfred Eicher as producer.

Young moves between nylon-string, acoustic and electric guitars, and the tunes are usually introduced by the saxophone. In Therese's Gate his classical guitar sits beside Seim's low-key tenor. Bounce rides a mid-tempo groove and leaves room for an electric guitar solo. Sofia's Dance starts from harp-like acoustic picking with a hint of Middle Eastern colour, and Miskiewicz's drumming pushes it forward while Wasilewski builds on the guitar figures.

John Fordham wrote in The Guardian that "the quality of the composing matches the formidable powers of the band", and heard a set of undemonstrative surprises and contrasts. Phil Johnson in The Independent singled out Bounce and described music that "almost seems to hover in the room, such is the sense of airy weightlessness". John Kelman of All About Jazz found that the piano gave Young more freedom than on his previous ECM albums. In his view the music simmered in a way they had not.

This is the CD edition, ECM 2366, first released on 16 May 2014.