Changing Places - Stylish and Functional Home Decor for Modern Living | Perfect for Living Rooms, Bedrooms & Offices

Changing Places is, in a word, exquisite, with each successive track seemingly gleaming yet more brightly than the last. It is a work to be listened to and valued as a whole rather than as a collection of songs; it is one mind (Gustavsen, who composed all the music), one mood woven through. It is quiet, subtle, and refined, yet its beauty is not so much of conscious design but present by virtue of its creator's revealed essence. As it is guaranteed to elicit much contemplation and feeling from anyone responsive to such richly impressionistic and genuinely communicative expression, it is music intended to accompany the listener's interpretive thought and image, an experience both affecting and effecting the mind.The pieces are based primarily on the intuitive improvisations of pianist Gustavsen, bassist Harald Johnsen, and the whispered percussion of Jarle Vespestad, emphasizing slight variances in chord progressions that aren't heavily patterned or repetitive. The elements offered by the restraint in tempo and spare assemblage of musicians allow every note to count and register deeply. It's like listening to people think, and by the disc's end the world around you will have been stripped away by the essential stimulation of this music, and you will have begun to listen to yourself think as well. Changing Places is sixty-six minutes to savor, a merciful respite from mediocrity, an opportunity to heighten one's sense of existence. Can't offer much higher praise than that.On a final note, I feel compelled to give it up for ECM. No one else is reaching in remote pockets of the globe and distributing this kind of supremely worthwhile, truly individualistic music. Maybe only in Europe can such a label reside; certainly, when for example compared with the latter-day commercially-minded incarnation of Blue Note, it exudes the kind of integrity and commitment to artistry as is sadly foreign in more ways than one to the land in which the spirit of jazz originated.