A Passion for John Donne was premiered live in 2012 at the Sofienberg church in the Oslo hometown of the Norwegian pianist, composer and polymath Ketil Bjørnstad. His fascination with John Donne has led to three albums on ECM over the previous two decades dedicated to the metaphysical English poet's texts in various settings. The Light, from 2007, was an intimate song cycle trio whereas the new one, A Passion for John Donne, is written for the Oslo Chamber choir. Gently poised between the sacred and sensual, the work effectively links the worlds of ecclesiastical, classical and contemporary improvised music and rock/popular song. Bjørnstad's professional classical piano background is evident in his scene setting and accompanying solo passages. The recording is notable for featuring the ECM debut of Håkon Kornstad, a Norwegian saxophonist (Atomic and Wibutee) constructing a new persona as an opera singer (he took time out to study opera for three years recently) as well as jazz musician and sometimes combining the two. This is the first album where Kornstad both sings and plays sax. The sonorous hum of the choir hangs over Kornstad's warm toned tenor voice and sax, and he offers only delicate hints of his favoured extended technique such as slap-tonguing to enhance the resonant sound canvas.