What was said

Tord Gustavsen, Simin Tander, Jarle Vespestad

What was saidWhat was said
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Release date: 29.01.2016ECM 2465
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What was said brings new colours to Tord Gustavsen’s musical palette. His latest trio project builds upon the subtle understanding of his long musical association with drummer Jarle Vespestad, introduces the entrancing Afghan-German vocalist Simin Tander, and explores the tradition of Norwegian church music in a most untraditional way: “For the repertoire of the new project, Simin and I have been working with an Afghan poet, translating and shaping a selection of hymns that I grew up with in Norway into Pashto,” Gustavsen explains. “This process has been challenging and really fruitful. We have gone quite far in interpreting the lyrics in a more ‘integral’ manner, reaching into a space where I feel that Sufism and Christianity actually meet, along with other contemplative traditions. The Norwegian hymns are my ‘standards’ – reaching deeper down in my musical and spiritual being than the typical jazz canon. The sound and feel of the Norwegian hymns in Pashto is truly captivating.” Simin Tander also sings, in English, verse of Persian mystic Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-73) and US proto-Beat poet Kenneth Rexroth (1905-82).  As a pure play of sounds, too, the combination of Tander’s voice and Gustavsen’s piano and discreet electronics has an emotional persuasiveness of its own, outside the limits of language. The Gustavsen/Tander/Vespestad trio takes its programme of “hymns and visions” to the concert halls and clubs of Europe in the first months of 2016.
What was said was recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in April 2015 and produced by Manfred Eicher.
Mit What was said erweitert Tord Gustavsen einmal mehr sein Spektrum musikalischer Klangfarben. Sein neustes Trio-Projekt baut auf dem langjährigen, musikalisch fruchtbaren Austausch mit dem Schlagzeuger Jarle Vespestad auf und stellt gleichzeitig die bezaubernde deutsch-afghanische Sängerin Simin Tander vor. Gemeinsam erkunden sie die Tradition norwegischer Kirchenmusik auf sehr unorthodoxe Weise: „Für das Repertoire dieses neuen Projekts haben Simin und ich mit einem afghanischen Dichter/Lyriker zusammengearbeitet. Gemeinsam übersetzten und formten wir eine Reihe norwegischer Hymnen, mit denen ich in Norwegen aufwuchs, ins Paschtu“, erklärt Gustavsen. „Dieser Prozess war genauso herausfordernd wie fruchtbar. Wir haben uns stark darauf konzentriert, die Texte in einem ganzheitlichen Sinne zu interpretieren und sind in einem Bereich gelandet, wo ich das Gefühl habe, dass Sufismus und Christentum zusammenkommen, gemeinsam mit anderen kontemplativen Traditionen. Die norwegischen Hymnen sind meine ‚Standards‘ – sie haben viel größeren Einfluss auf mein spirituelles und musikalisches Dasein als der typische Jazzkanon. Klang und Stimmung der norwegischen Hymnen in Paschtu sind wahrlich fesselnd.“ Simin Tander singt außerdem Verse des persischen Mystikers Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-73) und des US-amerikanischen Proto-Beat Lyrikers Kenneth Rexroth (1905-82) in englischer Sprache. Auch als reines Zusammenspiel von Klängen besitzt die Kombination von Tanders Stimme und Gustavsens Klavierspiel, gepaart mit diskreten Elektronikklängen eine ganz eigene emotionale Überzeugungskraft – fernab der Beschränkungen des rein sprachlichen Ausdrucks. In den ersten Monaten des Jahres 2016 trägt das Gustavsen/Tander/Vespestad-Trio sein Programm der „Hymnen und Visionen“ in die Konzertsäle und Clubs Europas.
What was said wurde im April 2015 im Rainbow Studio in Oslo aufgenommen und von Manfred Eicher produziert.
Featured Artists
  • Tord GustavsenPiano, Electronics, Synth Bass
  • Simin TanderVoice
  • Jarle VespestadDrums
Recorded

April 2015, Rainbow Studio, Oslo

Original Release Date

29.01.2016

  • 1Your Grief
    (Tord Gustavsen, Jalal al-Din Rumi)    02:45
  • 2I See You
    (Traditional, Hans Adolph Brorson)    05:08
  • 3Imagine The Fog Disappearing
    (Mathilda Montgomery-Cederhielm, Wilhelm Andreas Wexels)    06:20
  • 4A Castle In Heaven
    (Traditional, Bernt Støylen)    04:46
  • 5Journey Of Life
    (Traditional, Elias Blix)    07:21
  • 6I Refuse
    (Tord Gustavsen, Kenneth Rexroth)    05:38
  • 7What Was Said To The Rose / O Sacred Head
    (Tord Gustavsen, Jalal al-Din Rumi, Hans Leo Hassler)    05:31
  • 8The Way You Play My Heart
    (Tord Gustavsen)    03:01
  • 9Rull
    (Tord Gustavsen)    03:02
  • 10The Source Of Now
    (Tord Gustavsen, Jalal al-Din Rumi)    04:19
  • 11Sweet Melting
    (Traditional, Johann Ludwig Conrad Allendorf, Peder Jacobsen Hygom)    03:20
  • 12Longing To Praise Thee
    (Traditional)    04:26
  • 13Sweet Melting Afterglow
    (Jarle Vespestad, Simin Tander, Tord Gustavsen, Traditional, Johann Ludwig Conrad Allendorf, Peder Jacobsen Hygom)    03:39
Tord Gustavsen’s new trio project builds upon the subtle understanding of his long musical association with drummer Jarle Vespestad, introduces the entrancing German-Afghan vocalist Simin Tander, and, alongside new compositions and improvisations, explores the tradition of Norwegian church music in an untraditional manner. “Simin and I have been working with an Afghan poet,” Gustavsen explains, “translating and shaping a selection of hymns that I grew up with in Norway into Pashto.”
 
Born in Cologne to an Afghan journalist father and a German teacher, Simin Tander has been attracting attention on the European jazz scene, with innovative performances which find her moving between English and Pashto and invented languages of her own. Gustavsen: “I liked the sound of the Pashto language itself and coincidentally was encountering it at a time when I was becoming increasingly interested in Sufi poetry.”
 
So Tander also sings - in English -  the revelatory lyrics of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-73). Gustavsen sets the Rumi renderings of Coleman Barks, creative paraphrases in free verse which make the great poet of Konya seem like a literary ancestor to Walt Whitman. The lyrical reach of the album is rounded out with a setting of a poem by US writer Kenneth Rexroth (1905-82), who also counted Rumi amongst a vast range of influences, and was himself a pioneer in delivering verse to the accompaniment of jazz improvisers. In the sources that Tord Gustavsen has intuitively brought together for his programme in What was said there are connections being made at a number of levels, as a sense of extended dialogue opens up, and poets talk to each other across the centuries…
 
Outside the limits of language and as interplay of sounds, the combination of the intimacy of Tander’s voice, Gustavsen’s melodically inventive piano and discreet electronics, and Vespestad’s patient, textural drumming has an emotional persuasiveness of its own. “Of course to me it’s a dual intention. This is a devotional project, and the way in which the words transcend the boundaries between forms and traditions is important for me. But it’s also fully OK to approach it as a pure musical experience. The sounds have texture and content. For any anyone who feels invited to dive deeper, the lyrics and translations are there, but this is not the kind of music where you have to read in order to listen.”
 
In the trio, singer Simin Tander rises to the challenge, as Gustavsen says, of being “both a soloistic interpreter of melody and an ensemble member, singing accompanying motifs, and contributing to improvisations in which the three of us are equals in terms of sharing ideas. She has a unique way of improvising, finding sounds that really work, staying with them, developing them very gradually. She has a discipline that really appeals to me and Jarle.”
 
Drummer Jarle Vespestad has been an important part of Tord’s music throughout his ECM history, and plays on all of his albums for the label. Over the last decade and more Jarle and Tord had occasionally played duo pieces as part of group performances as well as many piano and drum interludes. The extent of their resourcefulness was put to the test in 2014 when a Paris release concert for Extended Circle had to be played as a duo show after saxophonist Tore Brunborg and bassist Mats Eilertsen were stranded in Northern Norway by a plane cancellation. This was initially daunting since the concert was broadcast live on French radio: “We were really thrown into it, but it proved to be such a cool experience. It felt like there was a whole orchestra there. The context opened up the lower part of the drum kit in a new way. Jarle, with his extreme ability to be grounded, was really making all the dark sounds and textures of the drums shine. While we were playing I was thinking: ‘I want to do this on an album!’, because it was so rich.”
 
In the last year and a half Tord Gustavsen – somewhat to his surprise – has expanded his own textural range with the addition of electronics, using a Moog system which allows him to trigger computer based sounds and samples from the acoustic piano. On some pieces, he also uses a bass synthesizer. Throughout the album electronics are frequently almost a subliminal presence, felt as much as heard, but new sound-colour hybrids blossom as Gustavsen combines, for instance “the warmth and the sustain of a synth pad with the minimalism of a single piano line in the top,” or casts a euphonic halo around a piece, deepening an atmosphere. Restraint has always been a hallmark of Tord’s acoustic piano playing and a similar rigour is applied in his use of electronics. “The acoustic piano is a universe of exploration, and I’ll never be through with that journey, but the electronics are speaking to me much more than I could have anticipated. In fact, using them has influenced the acoustic piano playing, too. It’s as if I’m approaching the piano from a slightly different angle now. This too has been very fruitful.”
 
What was said was recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in April 2015, and produced by Manfred Eicher.
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