Extended Circle is the sixth ECM album by the Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen and the third by his quartet. It closes a cycle of six records that began with his trio albums and continued with this group. Gospel-tinged themes and slow ballads sit beside short collective improvisations and a fervent version of a Norwegian hymn. At times the band plays with more heat than before.
The quartet brings together the tenor saxophonist Tore Brunborg, the bassist Mats Eilertsen and the drummer Jarle Vespestad. Vespestad had already played on the pianist's ECM trio debut Changing Places in 2003. Brunborg had joined for the ensemble album Restored, Returned in 2009, and the quartet first recorded as such on The Well. Extended Circle was recorded in June 2013 at Rainbow Studio in Oslo, with Jan Erik Kongshaug engineering and Manfred Eicher producing. Gustavsen wrote most of the twelve pieces, while Entrance and its variation are credited to all four players. Brunborg has described the band as "a creative circle or community", shaped by playing together over time.
The group changes shape often. Right There and The Gift are played as a trio, without the saxophone, and Silent Spaces is solo piano. Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei Borg ("I Know a Castle in Heaven") is a hymn Gustavsen has known since childhood. Here it rides on Vespestad's shuffling snare, and Brunborg's tenor rises from a whisper to a cry before the melody returns. Devotion comes from a liturgical choral setting by Gustavsen. Its "Alleluia" is now sung by the tenor. In the bright major key of The Embrace Brunborg plays joyful solos, and the piece ends unresolved.
In The Guardian John Fordham called the album "a delicious collage of hypnotic grooving, softly stroked gospel themes", with more open jazz piano than on any of its predecessors. Roger Thomas gave it five stars in BBC Music Magazine and wrote that Gustavsen's music, "despite seeming spacious and understated", demands and holds careful attention. John Kelman in All About Jazz read the title as the culmination of the pianist's two ECM trilogies.
This is the CD edition, ECM 2358, first released on 17 January 2014.
