Harald Lassen returns with a new album, "Human samling" and shows that his growing acclaim and reputation as a unique creative force within Norwegian jazz is not only justified but plain for all to hear. Following on from his album "Eventyrer" and its offshoots, "Remix-Eventyrer" and the singles "Spazi Siderali" and "Ekstase tyvetyve", "Human samling" once again demonstrates a deft handling of the experimental and adventurous without complete abandonment of melody, harmony or pulse. Lassen doesn't defy convention, however. Instead he makes the smarter play, and bends convention to his will. This is jazz, but jazz of a different shape and colour, and a jazz that travels down a multitude of cultural roads. You can hear hints of a legion of musical legacies from across the ages, so much so that you begin to wonder if they're really there or if you're dreaming them. Was that a nod to Steve Reich? Or Frank Zappa? Was that a whisper of Pink Floyd? A quote from Weather Report? Or was it John Coltrane? The answer to all such questions can only be "maybe", but throughout one thing is certain: it's absolutely Lassen. Beginning with the mellow opener, "Before you came", there is a feeling of both nostalgia and yearning. The single "Berry Joy" sways between languid grooves and playing peek-a-boo with the shadows, a memorably melodic foray with impeccable playing. "Voyager" swaggers and jitters, its eyes always on the horizon, moving forward. "Thinkwalk" is an atmospheric excursion, complete with the sounds of nature, like church music for the pantheist. "Stella" begins with a twinkling piano riff and proceeds to rapidly evolve into a melodic jazz pop classic. "ListenTo", with its unexpected synth bells, creates its own unique little world at the heart of the album, a quasi-ambient hybrid of multiple musical angles bisecting each other. "Awaa!" jumps in with a jagged beat, sprinting forwards with drive and a mood of controlled recklessness. "About Music" sways into view, complete with narrator providing encouragement and advice to the listener, and slips and slides along with a cool groove. "How It Feels Pt.1" is a contemplative piano piece, merging with the single "How It Feels Pt.2", a jazz fugue, moving through different moods and textures, between composition and improvisation, with graceful fluidity and ease, throwing light and shadow across a shifting landscape of melody and variation. The album closer, "Pillow Talk" shuffles in with dense saxophone harmony loops, returning to the feel of yearning that was in the album opening, but here there is also a sense of disruption, provided by Lassen's soloing, creating a sense of unease that is only heightened when the album comes to an end. Such music can only come from a clear and free and open mind. The degree to which one can perceive Harald Lassen as a "Jazz musician" or instead as "a musician who happens to make jazz" is difficult to quantify or express. He is not wilfully mercurial or capricious, but eternally curious and expressive. Perhaps the name for such music has yet to exist. His ultra-reliable and always impressive band maintain a perfect synchronicity, not merely in terms of metrics, but also in terms of the prevailing musical winds, sailing in unison towards the same destination, never becoming lost in their own peregrinations, but remaining distinct individuals rather than mere tools for Lassen's imagination.