There can be very few musicians who are capable of making silence as audibly vivid as the Norwegian Bugge Wesseltoft, in particular in his solo piano recordings. For twenty years, the most successful of these, “It’s Snowing On My Piano”, has been treasured as a haven of wintry stillness and contemplation. It is a classic album. Listeners all over Europe have responded to it by giving it a permanent place in their lives. So now Bugge Wesseltoft and producer Siggi Loch have returned to the original concept of “Snowing” in “Everybody Loves Angels”. The title is a metaphor for the kind of weightless ease which the music conveys; and this time it’s not just for winter…

The location for the recording has a particular significance for Wesseltoft: “Over the years”, he says, “nature has become an increasingly important source of inspiration for me. In this place there are moments when I experience the feeling of being part of something much bigger. There was no place which could have felt more natural for this recording than Lofoten. The area is beautiful but also harsh, as is life here, just as it was for my great-grandfather, who was born here. To make a recording in the unbelievable LofotKatedralen brought all these things together for me.”

In his interpretations of songs by Lennon/McCartney, Paul Simon, Johann Sebastian Bach, Bruno Mars and several others, Wesseltoft has a way of shaping the sound of notes and chords, and of opening up spaces between notes that is uniquely his. As he plays, he does not follow any fixed plan, metre or arrangement; what happens is completely subservient to intuition in the moment. Every sound stands on its own merits. It is as if Wesseltoft is listening his way through into new spaces that open up for him, which then lead on to other doors through which he and the listener can step together. This world of contemplation is a musical counterweight to the zapping mentality of our time. The slowness and the pared-down state of the music permit listeners to find their own stories, colours and shades, to enter into spaces which they will want to visit again and again – and in any season.