Tord Gustavsen Quartet

The Well is the record on which the Tord Gustavsen Quartet settles into a real band. Two years after Restored, Returned introduced the line-up, and with long touring behind it, the Norwegian pianist wrote a whole programme of new tunes for these four players. The gospel-tinged, unhurried piano, the open space and the hummable melodies are all still there. The writing is more intricate, though, and the saxophone now carries much of the weight.

Gustavsen came to the quartet after a trilogy of trio albums. He has said that among the formats he toured after Restored, Returned this was the one that kept growing best as an ensemble. Tore Brunborg plays tenor saxophone, Mats Eilertsen double bass and Jarle Vespestad drums. Part of the material began as two commissions, for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and the Oslo International Church Music Festival, both in 2011. The album was recorded in February 2011 at Rainbow Studio in Oslo, with Jan Erik Kongshaug engineering and Manfred Eicher producing. All eleven pieces are by Gustavsen, and two of them are played as a trio.

After the solemn, church-like Prelude, a snare-drum tattoo opens Playing, and the urgency that Vespestad brings is heard straight away. Brunborg's lines combine a bluesy sound with a Nordic cry. The title track, in Gustavsen's words, has more elaborate harmony than the earlier albums and is denser and darker, but still built on breath and the space between notes. Circling became a central piece for him because the band changed it completely in the studio, into a fresh, minimalist gospel groove with small twists.

The press heard the change. In The Guardian, John Fordham noted the move into more structurally intricate territory and concluded that "the evolving story of this group remains pretty irresistible". Phil Johnson in The Independent on Sunday singled out Circling as the track that cooks and described the album as "stately lullaby-themes given rhythmic momentum by Vespestad's drum'n'bassy whispers". Writing in London Jazz News in 2012, Chris Parker heard an affecting tension between the delicacy of the melodic players and the controlled urgency of the drums.

CD edition, ECM 2237, first released by ECM in January 2012.