Two guitars gently envelop the uniquely evocative bandoneon of Dino Saluzzi on El Viejo Caminante, The Old Wanderer. Here, the Argentinean father and son team of Dino and José Maria Saluzzi are joined by Norway’s Jacob Young, in an album of musical depth and great charm. “It fills me with joy”, says Dino Saluzzi, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Masterful trio interplay reliant on deeply honed three-way communication and a refined sense of understatement make Fred Hersch’s third recording for ECM an essential entry into the piano trio canon. Hersch tackles a handful of 20th century compositions – spanning from standards to less frequented jazz tunes – as well as three originals, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
New Vienna is the fourth concert release from Keith Jarrett's triumphant final solo tour of Europe. The album follows Munich 2016, Budapest Concert and Bordeaux Concert. Why the title New Vienna? Those more familiar with Jarrett's music will know that his discography already includes a legendary Vienna Concert (recorded at the Vienna State Opera), ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Aeris is the ninth ECM New Series album to feature the vibrant and highly expressive music of Erkki-Sven Tuur. Olari Elts, a long-time champion of Tuuris compositions, conducts the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in compelling, intensely-focused performances of Phantasma, ...
Composer: Erkki-Sven Tuur
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. They’ve played together in many permutations over the years, but this is their first album as a quartet. Already hailed as a “Nordic supergroup” in some quarters, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Joe Lovano and his Polish conspirators from the Marcin Wasilewski trio are in an especially adventurous spirit on their second joint endeavour for ECM. Building on the lyrical strengths that inhabited the group’s previous recording (Arctic Riff, 2020), on Homage the quartet moreover investigates the type of free-flowing interplay ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Savina Yannatou’s fifth ECM album revolves around the theme of water in its many manifestations. Water as a blessing and a curse. A life-sustaining source and a mortal threat in the elemental power of the storm. Shakespeare’s The Tempest with the spirit Ariel’s song, “Full Fathom Five”, provided an inspirational starting point for Greek vocalist Yannatou ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
Eight years after Blue Maqams, Anouar Brahem returns with a new project, and a programme of powerfully-moving pieces for oud, cello, piano and bass. Asked about the nature of his artistic journey, Brahem has drawn analogies with the growth of a tree, its branches spreading out above ground, while roots dig ever deeper. Over time and the course of a remarkable discography
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Defiant Life, Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith’s second duo recording for ECM after 2016’s A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke, is a profound meditation on the human condition, reflecting both the hardships and acts of resilience it entails. But at the same time, it also proves a testament to the duo’s unique artistic relationship and the boundless forms of musical expression it ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Nicolas Masson’s acquaintance with his fellow quartet travelers Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret and Lionel Friedli goes back roughly two decades – in this time the players have developed an intimate musical bond, expressed purely and beautifully on Renaissance, the group’s second recording for ECM after 2018’s Travelers. Comprised exclusively of ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Alexander Knaifel: Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight: Canticum Canticorum is among the most remarkable compositions of Alexander Knaifel. Written in 1992 and 1993 and based upon the eighth chapter of the Old Testament Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon, it is conceived as a “community prayer”. In his imagination, while writing it, Knaifel said he “heard it in the most reverberant church ...
Composer: Alexander Knaifel (1943-2024)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Choral
Norway’s Jon Balke proposes a new sonic dimension with Skrifum, continuing a line of inquiry begun with Warp (2016) and Discourses (2020), solo piano albums which also processed the acoustic environment in which the music was heard. Skrifum, however, takes things a step further, as is apparent from the outset. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
After twenty-plus years of shared activity, the Billy Hart Quartet – with Mark Turner, Ethan Iverson and Ben Street – is still distinguished by its stylistic openness, a consequence of setting out to embrace all the things that drummer-leader Hart likes to play. “If ever there was an example of contemporary jazz that draws extensively on all ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
THE KÖLN CONCERT, the most successful solo jazz album of all time, is an awe-inspiring work of improvisation and invention. There is a consensus among critics, listeners and musicians alike that this, Keith Jarrett’s second solo piano concert recording (after Solo-Concerts Bremen/Lausanne), is a milestone not only of Keith Jarrett’s work, but of ...
Composer: Keith Jarrett (1945)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
For Lullaby, Norwegian trumpeter Mathias Eick draws on the quartet formation in a programme that includes some of his most exploratory and improvisatory qualities to date, with a cast of ECM familiars Kristjan Randalu and Ole Morten Vågan on piano and bass, and new arrival Hans Hulbækmo on drums. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Soprano saxophonist Yuval Cohen’s debut for the label is a thrilling offering that captures the brother of long-time ECM traveller Avishai Cohen charting innovative paths through eight originals in graceful interplay with his quartet. Pianist Tom Oren, bassist Alon Near and Alon Benjamini on drums are longtime acquaintances of Yuval’s who are not only outstanding ...
Composer: Yuval Cohen (1973)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Julia Hülsmann’s quartet resurfaces with a fresh Norwegian voice on horn in tow and presents an attractive batch of originals that finds the group thoughtfully exploring common ground with a knack for adventure. When saxophonist Uli Kempendorff first joined Julia’s trio on 2019’s Not Far From Here, a new sense of expressionist urgency was ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
François Couturier and Dominique Pifarély, defining figures in creative music in France, renew their special connection on Preludes and Songs, an album of sensitive interaction, improvisational flair, and wide ranging artistic reference. Almost three decades have elapsed since the last ECM album by the pianist and violinist ...
Composer: Francois Couturier (1950)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Back with a newly formed quintet, gathered together for a particularly fruitful 2024 session in Southern France, the German-American pianist Benjamin Lackner now presents a different side of his composer-approach that should go a step further in exposing Lackner as a force to be reckoned with in the contemporary jazz world. Trumpeter Mathias Eick is the sole returnee from Lackner’s debut ...
Composer: Benjamin Lackner (1976)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
A strikingly unorthodox album, with a unique sense of flow, Relations brings together kindred spirits from scattered compass points and traditions, and tells us something new about each of them. Conceived and realized over a four year period, the album is both a thoughtful collection of duos and solos and ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
