| Changing Places |  | Artist: Tord Gustavsen Trio
Label: Universal Japan
Category: Music
Buy New: $50.98
Rating:  31 reviews
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 4988005528933
ASIN: B001DKBKTG
Release Date: November 5, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Tracks:
| • | Deep as Love | | • | Graceful Touch | | • | Ign | | • | Melted Matter | | • | At a Glance | | • | Song of Yearning | | • | Turning Point | | • | Interlude | | • | Where Breathing Starts | | • | Going Places | | • | Your Eyes | | • | Graceful Touch, Variation | | • | Song of Yearning (Solo) |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Fantasy Extreme July 17, 2008
Mukesh R. Bhakta (Melbourne, Australia)
Amazing acoustics and soundspace. A definative collection. My better half loved 2. Graceful Touch and 9. Where Breathing Starts. Well nothing better than seeing her snuggled in for a listen ;-) Thanks Tord.
Astrological stars! January 22, 2008
Kenneth Seidman (Victoria, BC)
Other reviewers have articulated appreciation for TG (and the trio)'s work so well. Thank you. This music is soothing, healing and enlightening - simultaneously familiar yet unique. I'll just add for those of an astrological bent that I found it interesting that astrology seems to support TG's aesthetic: with Venus (planet associated with one's sense of beauty and harmony)conjunct Neptune (higher transpersonal octave of Venus) in Scorpio (music as eroticism per TG's words) opposite Saturn (planet associated with ascetic discipline and essential structure of self) in Taurus (a sign associated with music, particularly the voice - metaphor for TG's spare while melodic sensibility). This is certainly an incomplete reading, but an interesting metaphor for the taut balance TG achieves between a freely sensuous, personal, upclose feeling and an austere spacious sensibility.
 Intriguing, yet lacking July 15, 2007
Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA)
The reviewers who likened Gustavsen to Keith Jarret have it right, I think. Gustavsen copies a lot of Jarret's rhythmic and melodic motifs, although "melodic" is a bit of a stretch here as there are no real melodic themes that are developed through a piece. There's no dissonance, nothing too create even a tiny bit of tension that could be resolved to create something more than a meandering flow of pleasant sound.
Gustavsen here reminds me of some of Jarret's more unstructured (and, I hesitate to say, noodling) improvisations in his longer pieces, and as one reviewer notes, there's a little similarity to "My Song". As for the Bill Evans comparison- not even close. Evans could take a well-known melody and develop it into something exquisite yet still recognizable. His own compositions were infinitely more sophisticated harmonically and melodically than what we hear from Gustavsen.
Where the Evans comparison is apt, I think, is in the classical roots that permeate both musicians' work. Evans was strongly influenced both melodically and harmonically by Chopin, and Gustavsen seems to find more of his inspiration in the tone poems of a Grieg or perhaps Sibelius, though not to the extent that Evans incorporated Chopin in his harmonic conception. In short, this is an intriguing piece of background or easy listening music, but I'm not hearing the kind of complexity or sustained development that draws the listener in and involves him or her with the music.
Placid and Ever So Smooth April 8, 2007
Kurt Harding (Boerne TX)
My introduction to Tord Gustavsen came via The Ground which was highly recommended in a respected national magazine known for its elevated tone and sophisticated taste. I liked that CD well enough, but I like Changing Places even more. It is indeed mellow, placid, and ever so smooth and it may even be sleep-inducing as one reviewer suggested, but it is pure bliss from the first note to the last.
What makes Changing Places so good is not just the relaxing vibe, but the way it flows so evenly, each tune blending seamlessly into the one that follows. I have no favorites here, I like the whole CD. Its just the perfect background music for relaxing on your porch with a favorite beverage or for calming your nerves while doing paperwork at the office.
Changing Places has me eagerly looking forward to the next Tord Gustavsen Trio CD. If you like laid-back pianocentric jazz, then you should enjoy this as well.
The best kind of candlelight jazz November 9, 2006
spiral_mind (Pennsylvania)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Changing Places reminds me more than anything of an ice sculpture: it's a thing of crystalline beauty, light and delicate, almost ephemeral. But there's a gorgeous range of colors, and it always seems to be shifting and changing with the light.
This is piano-trio jazz made for snowy/rainy days, quiet moments and the small hours of the night. Even "IGN" with its up-tempo bluesy feeling doesn't break the fragile beauty of the overall mood. Gustavsen has an exquisite touch on the keys, but more importantly, his musical sensibility covers not just jazz but folk, blues, Latin rhythms and whatever else he comes across. It's all blended into something contemplative and reflective. The notes fall as gently as snowflakes. Rarely does such instrumental sophistication come across as so smooth & easy to listen to. Just as importantly, TG's trio are telepathically attuned to each other. They work together, they interact and respond to each other with an effortless grace, and they recognize the value of silence just as much as the value of the notes.
It seems impossible that any label can keep making so many albums (let alone so many with this same instrumentation) and keep making so many more beautiful than the last. But somehow ECM still does it. This is no exception. Best enjoyed by candlelight, although any quiet time will do well.
|
|
|
 
| |
