The album title – Words Unspoken – alludes to the instant musical understanding found by the members of this nimble quartet assembled by great British reedman John Surman.

“My idea was to put together some musical ideas that would offer a collective sense of purpose but still be open enough to allow each of us to suggest other ways of developing the material together. Everything fell into place immediately. But I soon realized it wasn’t so much the musical ideas that made it work, it was the musicians.”

Surman and US vibraharpist Rob Waring – both residents of Oslo – had previously collaborated in John’s Invisible Threads trio with Nelson Ayres, but the associations with Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen and UK guitarist Rob Luft were new.

With these four quick-witted players, all debate takes place in the music, stimulated by Surman’s strongly melodic themes and improvisational imagination. Words Unspoken is issued as the quartet gears up for international touring.

1. Pebble Dance (6:18)
2. Words Unspoken (6:34)
3. Graviola (6:07)
4. Flower In Aspic (5:22)
5. Precipice (5:28)
6. Around The Edges (4:19)
7. Onich Ceilidh (8:06)
8. Belay That (7:22)
9. Bitter Aloe (5:11)
10. Hawksmoor (6:52)

This vibrantly alive, dutifully hued new album opens on the sprightly, at first, cultured and empathic thereafter Pebble Dance and the fluctuating, low slung, titular Words Unspoken, and they are followed by the beautiful evenflow of Graviola, and then we get the embodied Flower In Aspic and the confident Precipice.

Along next is the shimmering Around The Edges and the delicately hued Onich Ceilidh and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the stoically ethereal Belay That, the recording rounding out on the quietly playful Bitter Aloe, closing on the sensitively sculpted Hawksmoor.

Surman, who turns 80 in 2024, has been a vital force in European jazz and adjacent genres for more than half a century, already establishing himself as a unique soloist in the 1960s in groups led by Mike Westbrook and Chris McGregor.

The band called just The Trio, with Surman and Americans Barre Phillips and Stu Martin, was one of the defining improvising groups of its era, and it was with this line-up that Surman first appeared on ECM, on Barre Phillips’s Mountainscapes in 1976. This was followed, in 1978, by Surman’s Upon Reflection.

Since then, he has appeared on ECM in the broadest range of contexts. These range from solo recordings (including the acclaimed Private City and Road To St Ives) to large ensembles - among them the John Surman/John Warren Brass Project, the Proverbs and Songs project with the Salisbury Festival Chorus, and Free and Equal with London Brass.

And from duos (with Jack DeJohnette, Howard Moody) to transcultural projects (Anouar Brahem’s Thimar trio with Dave Holland, and John Potter’s early music-aligned Dowland Project). Surman has collaborated with the string quartet Trans4mation (on The Spaces In Between and Corruscating), and fronted his own groups on the albums Nordic Quartet (with Karin Krog, Terje Rypdal and Vigleik Storaas), Stranger Than Fiction (with John Taylor, Chris Laurence and John Marshall) and Brewster’s Rooster (with John Abercrombie, Drew Gress and Jack DeJohnette).

He has also been an important contributor to projects led by Paul Bley, Miroslav Vitous, Tomasz Stanko, Misha Alperin and Mick Goodrick.

In all, a richly creative discography.

Unspoken Words was recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in December 2022, and is issued as the band embarks on its first European tour.

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