Chritian Wallumrød’s progress on ECM since his debut in 1996 with No Birch has been one of gradual, sometimes imperceptible artistic growth, documented on seven CDs as a leader culminating in his current release Outstairs. Although the album does not represent a ‘flowering’ of his talent over this period of time, it does represent a detailed articulation of a musical vision that has had time and space to grow and is now emerging as something bigger and broader in its realisation than perhaps previous albums might have suggested. By quietly and subtly achieving the unexpected through subtle motion rather than implicit gesture, this ensemble of shifting textures and moods initially beguiles rather than impresses until you realise that the act of beguiling gradually becomes the act of impressing – quite an achievement in today’s world of rebarbative overstatement.