In a world of piano trios, Belovèd are a world apart. A decade on from their first coalescence, this is their first appearance on ECM and it’s no surprise if their sound feels a little influenced by that label’s signature vibe: there’s a spaciousness, a meditative quality, a gorgeous love of melody that you’d more readily associate with Keith Jarrett: and Bates has few qualms in chiming with Jarrett’s great European band (check some of the runs on, say ‘Little Petherick’ or the hymnal ‘This World’). But this is in no way Bates ‘mellowing’ out: as the title suggests, this is him exploring a different sound world, the world of touch, that mysterious relationship with those unforgiving keys. He’s helped enormously by his compatriots. Bruun’s drumming is delicately pointed, with plashes of colour, while Eldh, like Haden, counterpoints Bates with a burnished tone and a choice of simply the most appropriate notes. The album sighs and rises with endless delights: established Belovèd material like ‘We Are Not Lost, We Are Simply Finding Our Way’, are gleefully revisited, while Bird’s ‘Passport’ is a nod to the band’s earlier re-imaginings of Charlie Parker. But it’s the bookending of the music between an ‘old number’, ‘Sadness All the Way Down’ and the new ‘Happiness All the Way Up’ and its long decaying, climatic crystalline chord that sums up an album touched with genius.

Jazzwise spoke to Django Bates about the album

Can’t believe it’s been a decade since you, Petter and Peter hooked up&

The difference between this and other bands of mine is the way it was created. We rehearsed everything to do with musical performance for a year before I introduced any composed music. We’d set up a different way every week until we found the final position that gave perfect sight-lines and the best internal acoustic sound. Practicing freely with very open instructions – fast, quiet, gauchely, gingerly – gave the band a shared background of spontaneity. So now, when I bring a detailed written piece like ‘Slippage Street’, we still approach it with open minds, as if we were at one of our early improvisation sessions.

What are the qualities of ‘touch’? Can you give us an example?

When writing The Study Of Touch I asked myself what could give emotional depth to the deliberately banal opening idea from which the piece grows? I knew the premiere would be at the Royal Albert Hall, so I began writing for that huge space. Each time I wrote an isolated cymbal hit or very high exposed double-bass note, I had a clear picture of how Petter and Peter would give it life; what touch we would use at each moment. I bumped into Nils Petter Molvær and, as a unique way of asking me how I was doing, he asked, “Is there anyone in your life you can touch?” This gave a further meaning to the title; less technical, less about perfection, more human.

Who are ‘touch’ musicians you admire? There are songs on the album that have long been in the ‘repertoire’, but are now ‘re-touched’?

Listen to ‘Blossom’ on [Keith Jarrett’s] Belonging. There’s a solo where the notes get higher and higher; you are waiting for a single drop of dew to fall from a petal. When the highest piano note is reached there’s nowhere left to go: the bass has to fill the gap. If you want to reflect on touch listen to what Palle Danielsson did right there! There is one Parker tune, ‘Passport’ as a reminder of Belovèd’s first influence. The title felt pertinent in the light of Brexit. And then there are older pieces. Belovèd are eternally remodelling and I hope people enjoy observing this growth.