Tord Gustavsen Trio – Changing Places (2xLP, ECM Luminessence series)

In the year of its release, Richard Lehnert wrote in Stereophile that Tord Gustavsen had "achieved an instant classic with his first album as a bandleader". Lehnert also described Gustavsen as a "master of pianistic control and restraint" - qualities that the Norwegian pianist had already mastered to perfection at the time and has consistently developed further in various ECM contexts since then.

All the qualities that give Gustavsen such an unmistakable - and, in retrospect, formative - compositional voice were already fully present on the first release of "Changing Places" in 2003: music that sings, at once tender and powerful. Gustavsen writes sounds that seem like future standards: lyrical, immediately memorable pieces, with an appealing freshness and at the same time characterized by a refined preoccupation with the melodic line. From the very beginning, Gustavsen was inspired by gospel and chorales and combined these traditions organically, while the trio improvised freely within the structures.

Now the album is being released on vinyl for the first time as part of the Luminessence series - on two LPs in a tip-on gatefold cover.