As a youngster, Trygve Seim was more interested in football than the saxophone. Then his dad played him a Jan Garbarek album – Eventyr, released by ECM (as it so happens) – and Seim was won over. “It's something about the special way he produces his tone, but also the fact that while most players are concerned with how many notes they can play, Garbarek is always telling a story on the saxophone,” he explains. “Ever since, I've always been drawn to musicians who tell a story through their instruments. And that's what I hope to do.” And that is indeed what the Norwegian saxophonist does do on Helsinki Songs, his eighth album for ECM (as it so happens) as leader or co-leader, largely written on sojourns in the Finnish capital and then recorded at Rainbow Studio in Oslo. There's a lovely, lyrical wistfulness about many of the tunes, such as ‘New Beginning’. ‘Katya's Dream’ was inspired by a film about Igor Stravinsky and Coco Chanel – Katya was Stravinsky's long-suffering first wife. The pensive ‘Birthday Song’, written for bassist Mats Eilertsen's 40th, is unlikely to displace ‘Happy Birthday’ as most people's anniversary anthem of choice, but it's full of an irresistible sense of longing. The set is capped by ‘Yes Please Both’, which combines references to Winnie the Pooh and Ornette Coleman – not something everyone could manage!