The enhanced silence of the Tord Gustavsen Trio

Last Saturday evening my wife and I went to see the Tord Gustavsen Trio just up the road at the Wiltshire Music Centre.

I like noisy boisterous music (Brazlian, flamenco, blues etc.) and what my wife calls busy-busy music (Bach fugues etc.), but I also have a soft spot for Nordic Jazz. I have a number of Nordic Jazz CDs including the first one by the Tord Gustavsen Trio.

Anyway, the concert itself was well worth it in a very low-key way - a kind of musical meditation. The three musicians were clearly communicating with each other on many levels, even though the pianist and the drummer had their eyes closed most of the time and the bassist was mostly looking into a middle distance. In fact, from my studies of hypnosis, I would say that all three were in a very special type of trance.

The music itself was lyrical, reflective and sparsely romantic in that Nordic way. Somehow the attention that the musicians paid to each note fostered the same in the audience. There was even a drum solo that will go down as the most memorable I've ever heard because a lot of the time it was barely audible - a pulse, a shimmer, a rhythmic presence in the ear drums.

All in all the whole experience was very stilling and strangely exciting. In fact, the paradoxical notion of "enhanced silence" kept popping into my head. The next day I found out that Tord himself is studying for something between a Masters and a PhD in musicology. As he puts it, "It's all about living the paradoxes of life and art dynamically and fruitfully. It's about coming to terms with contradictions recognizing both sides of polarities without getting stuck in the middle-of-the-road."

Check out his interesting thoughts here >>>>> and the trio here >>>>>