By Filipe Freitas

Tord Gustavsen, 2018 - photo by © Clara Pereira

Name: Tord Gustavsen
Instrument: piano
Style: contemporary jazz, chamber jazz, Norwegian folk, gospel
Album Highlights: Being There (ECM, 2007); The Other Side (ECM, 2018); Seeing (ECM, 2024)

Your music seems to convey a deep spiritual essence. Would you describe yourself as a spiritual person?
Yes, I would. Every good and humble musician is a 'spiritual' person - agnostic, atheist, or openly religious. Channelling deep beauty is spiritual. For me, though, spirituality in other senses of the term are also relevant. I grew up going to church, playing piano, and accompanying choirs and communal singing from very early on – so musicality and spirituality are organically linked in me. I stayed in church but, mind you, in the liberal, open-minded rainbow-version of it; while also studying other religions, and being deeply inspired by Tantric Wisdom, Buddhist thinking, Sufi poetry (to name some). So my post-post modern Christianity is both rooted, devoted, and very free. Prayer or meditation is important - both literally and as a metaphor for music making and life in general.

Gospel, folk, and classical influences frequently surface in your work. How do you weave these elements into your compositions? Are they consciously planned, or do they emerge more organically?
This amalgam seems to happen whether I want it to or not… definitely not as a result of conscious planning. I simply try to play music that feels authentic and essential for me here and now; and then this what the music comes to. Of course, I can analyze things in retrospect and discern different stylistic impulses, tracing things here and there, but the process of creating is very intuitive, almost childlike.

In your latest album Seeing, the synergy within your trio is palpable—it feels as though you all breathe as one. What qualities do you value most in your musical partners, Steinar Raknes and Jarle Vespestad, that inspire you to continue collaborating with them?
Thank you for saying that. The organic interplay and the natural breathing of the music is hugely important to me. And I play with fantastic musicians who both combine very strong technical skills with impressively open ears and the basic attitude of subordinating their egos to the music - to the melodic content of it and to the textures and soundscapes as something more important than showing skills or being soloists. This combination of an almost pop-band cherishing of the melodies with the radical freedom of improvisation in the moment is very stimulating.

How do you perceive the world in its current state?
God is love, and Love is god, no matter what. It is our job, as humans and as musicians, to spread as much love in as many ways we can. Looking at Gaza, Ukraine, and other places of conflict and poverty, as well as climate change and its consequences, can indeed be very discouraging and dark. But this just makes the spread of love more imperative and the contribution of goodness even more important, on all scales — from working to release forces of love among those who are closest to us to supporting organizations with people who do the very courageous work of going into the conflict zones and help. And I do believe in the power of music and deep beauty, although this sometimes seems small and helpless in the face of war and poverty.

Name two people who influenced you the most as a musician.
My father, an amateur piano player - he put me on his knee by the piano and improvised with me from very early on. And Jarle Vespestad, the drummer in my ensemble for more than 20 years. Very difficult not to add a few other names to the list… Tore Brunborg, Mats Eilertsen, Simin Tander, Mahsa Vahdat, Arve Henriksen… basically everyone with whom I have played regularly over the years. And Wayne Shorter and Keith Jarrett.

Name two people whom you’ve never collaborated with but you’d like to.
Leonard Cohen and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Too late, I know.., but one can indirectly collaborate with anyone whose artistic work and spiritual presence shines down through time after they have physically left.

What genres of music do you typically listen to?
I listen very broadly - lots of Baroque and early music; Impressionism (Ravel); Persian music; Norwegian folk; singer-songwriters; electronica; as well as American jazz, both old and new.

If you weren't a musician, what would you have been?
Probably an academic - psychologist or theologian. I don’t necessarily have to play music full time, and being a musician involves 50% administrative work for most of us, anyway. But I cannot really imagine myself not being a musician at all.

What exciting projects do you have lined up in the near future?
Touring internationally with the trio; doing liturgical music meditations in churches around Oslo; doing a couple of solo concerts; writing for and playing with choirs; playing with Norwegian folk singer Kim Rysstad and trumpeter Arve Henriksen; programming a small but ambitious festival of contemplative music across genres and spiritual traditions. Now getting ready for sound check with the trio in Ghent, Belgium