Tord Gustavsen Ensemble

Restored, Returned is the album with which Tord Gustavsen stepped outside the piano trio of his first three ECM records, Changing Places, The Ground and Being There. The Norwegian pianist widened the group to a quintet with saxophone and voice, and set poems by W.H. Auden from the 1940 collection Another Time. The close, quiet focus of the trio years remains, while the blues and gospel roots of his writing come further to the surface.

Gustavsen kept the drummer Jarle Vespestad from the trio and brought in the bassist Mats Eilertsen, Tore Brunborg on tenor and soprano saxophones and the singer Kristin Asbjørnsen. Part of the music began as a commission from the Vossajazz festival, where the live version also included spoken word in Norwegian. Gustavsen told ECM that he found Another Time in an Oxford bookshop on a day off during a UK tour. The album was recorded in January 2009 at Rainbow Studio in Oslo, with Jan Erik Kongshaug as engineer and Manfred Eicher producing.

In Gustavsen's words, the record explores the duos, trios and quartets inside the band more than the full force of five voices. The Child Within opens it as a lullaby for piano and Brunborg's soprano, written for their first duo concert in 2007. The title piece moves from a rubato opening into a hymn-like chorus. Left Over Lullaby No. 1 / O Stand, Stand At The Window sets Asbjørnsen's wordless voice in unison with saxophone and piano around a central duet for voice and piano. Your Crooked Heart then gives that song's melody to the trio, whose pulse gradually loosens into free playing.

Writing in The Guardian in October 2009, John Fordham recalled that Changing Places had been the biggest ECM debut in a decade. He heard Brunborg as rougher and less ethereal than his model, Jan Garbarek, and concluded: "For those who felt Gustavsen's work was a bit pallid, here's the remedy." Textura described the album as "a tasteful and intimate session of spacious, oft-fragile playing", with gospel and blues settings at its core. It also noted that the leader often supports the collective sound rather than taking solo space.

This is the CD edition, ECM 2107, first released on 12 October 2009. Auden's texts are sung on four of its eleven tracks.