Nicolas Masson, Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret, Lionel Friedli

Travelers is the first ECM album under the name of the Swiss reedman Nicolas Masson, after two records with the cooperative trio Third Reel. It documents the quartet he has led for some twelve years with the same members, until then known as Nicolas Masson's Parallels. Masson wrote all nine pieces, short melodic themes that leave the four players a lot of room to answer each other.

Masson plays tenor and soprano saxophone and clarinet. With him are pianist Colin Vallon and bassist Patrice Moret, who also work together in the Colin Vallon Trio, and drummer Lionel Friedli. In the group's early years Vallon played only Fender Rhodes and the textures were thicker, as heard on the 2009 album Thirty Six Ghosts. Masson told ECM that working with Third Reel made him want "a more singing, melodic approach", and that arias by Handel, Telemann and Purcell helped him renew his saxophone playing. He also said he wrote each tune in relation to someone he has known. The album was recorded in April 2017 at the Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher, as an ECM and RSI Rete Due co-production.

The music moves slowly and keeps its lines clean. Almost Forty ends in a vamp over which Masson improvises, while The Deep gives Friedli's tom-toms, gongs and metals a long feature. Philae rests on a bass groove from Moret, and Blurred and Jura open up the arrangements a little more. Throughout, Vallon tends to lay down chords and space rather than run across the keyboard, which suits Masson's plain, pure tone.

In AllMusic, Thom Jurek called the music "committed, focused, democratic" and said it "uncovers its secrets slowly". John Kelman of All About Jazz thought it could bring the group the international attention it already had at home, and called it "an album not to be missed". Filipe Freitas of JazzTrail was cooler about the opener Gagarine, but praised the musicians' "convergence, reciprocity, and team spirit".

This is the CD edition, ECM 2578, first released on 16 February 2018.