Some artists have a calling, and although Espen Berg has not said as much, he has naturally gravitated towards solo piano for as long as he can remember, a gift that saw him performing on national Norwegian television at the age of six. He recorded two acclaimed solo albums while in his twenties, an age when very few jazz pianists feel they are ready for the demanding challenge of playing totally improvised solo concerts. Now, at the grand old age of 39 he feels ready to embark on a mid-career change to concentrate more on the one area of jazz that has always seemed to be beckoning him. Well, he’s off to a good start. A live two-compact disc set gives him enough rope to hang himself – mis-fingering when ideas falter, “vamping ‘till ready” while hoping for inspiration, falling short in terms of melodic development, ideas running nowhere – there’s a whole gamut of potential potholes to trip-up the unwary when improvising from scratch, especially in front of a demanding audience (and yes, audiences in Trondheim, home to perhaps the most successful jazz conservertoire in Europe, do tend to be a tad demanding). Yet Berg effortlessly sustains interest throughout the length of these two discs, and far from a shortage of ideas, he seems bursting at the seams to tell his musical story. And this, essentially is what this album is – 10 episodes that create a narrative arc that take you on a musical journey – Pat Metheny tells students it’s ‘the trip factor’ in compositions – where his playing is in a constant state of becoming.

Starting with open chords and diatonic beginnings, Berg gradually introduces complexity, a little dissonance to keep everyone on their toes and finally resolution. Impressive stuff – the future of the spontaneously-improvised solo concert is in safe hands.