Norwegian drummer/composer Thomas Strønen presents a revised edition of his acoustic collective Time Is A Blind Guide, now trimmed to quintet size, and with a new pianist in Wakayama-born Ayumi Tanaka. Tanaka has spoken of seeking associative connections between Japan and Norway ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
The great Swedish trio of Bobo Stenson takes a stand against indecision in a decisively beautiful new album. As ever, the trio draws upon a wide range of source materials. A yearning title song by Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, Bartók’s adaptation of a Slovak folk song, a piece ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Kit Downes’s previous ECM appearance was as pianist on the debut recording of Time Is A Blind Guide in 2015 and he’s critically-regarded as one of the UK’s outstanding young jazz talents. This recording however has little to do with “jazz”, although ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. He has performed with all the major orchestras in the world, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, with whom he made his debut in 1985 with Daniel Barenboim; the Wiener Philharmoniker, ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
Polish alto saxophone player Maciej Obara makes a striking ECM debut with Unloved, an album whose expressive range embraces tender lyricism and impassioned, fiery, powerful playing. With the exception of the title track - written by Krzysztof Komeda ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
Siwan, the international collective led by Norwegian keyboardist-composer-arranger Jon Balke, released its ECM debut in 2009 and is now back, rallying its powerful instrumental forces behind a new lead singer, Mona Boutchebak from Algeria. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre:
Declaring that he is “no longer able to ignore overwhelming and outrageous recent world events”, trumpeter and composer Michael Mantler leaves the world of abstract music behind to tackle a host of contemporary evils head-on. ...
Composer: Michael Mantler (1943)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
British pianist Django Bates returns to ECM with one of his very finest constellations, the trio Belovèd, with Swedish bassist Petter Eldh and Danish drummer Peter Bruun, and an aptly named album, The Study of Touch. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Aho: Concerto for Soprano Saxophone & Chamber Orchestra and Quintet for Winds & Piano
To date, Kalevi Aho has composed sixteen symphonies and twenty-eight concertos, several operas and a large number of chamber works – a rate of production which is all the more impressive considering the complexity and originality displayed ...
Composer: Kalevi Aho (1949)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Concertos
For Yelena Eckemoff, finding the nexus where training and an early successful career in the classical sphere meet with the Moscow-born, North Carolina-resident pianist/composer's more recent predilection for jazz and improvised music has been a wholly natural pursuit. A meeting place where the whole is invariably greater ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Yuuko Shiokawa and András Schiff are heard here in an insightful programme of sonatas for violin and piano which begins with Bach’s Sonata No.3 in E major, ends with Beethoven’s Sonata No.10 in G major, and has at its centre Busoni’s Sonata No. 2 in E minor. ...
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750), Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
J.S. Bach: Suiten für Violoncello
Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga returns to Bach’s suites. “To me, Bach is the greatest musical genius who has ever lived. His music is pure, sublime. It possesses something divine and each musician has a lifetime in which to discover new ways of interpreting it.” ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
J.S. Bach: Préludes & Sarabandes
Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga returns to Bach’s suites. “To me, Bach is the greatest musical genius who has ever lived. His music is pure, sublime. It possesses something divine and each musician has a lifetime in which to discover new ways of interpreting it.” ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Maderna & Berio: Now, And Then
Now, and then is a fascinating album which challenges definitions of old and new music. Bruno Maderna’s charming and evocative transcriptions and re-orchestrations of pieces by Frescobaldi, Legrenzi, Gabrieli, Viadana and Wassanaer are brought together with Luciano ...
Composer: Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), Luciano Berio (1925–2003), Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612), Tommaso Lodovico da Viadana, Unico Wilhelm Graf Van Wassenaer
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Three brilliant improvisers join Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem in this album, recorded in New York in May 2017. For Brahem and Dave Holland the album marks a reunion: they first collaborated 20 years ago on the very widely-acclaimed Thimar album, a trio recording with John Surman. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre:
A self-described ‘old fashioned romantic,’ Moscow-born pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff once again demonstrates uncommon lyricism and a gift for melody on In the Shadow of a Cloud, her most upbeat and accomplished recording to date. With a pristine touch and refined sense of form, Eckemoff ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
Released in time for the great Ukrainian composers 80th birthday on September 30, Hieroglyphen der Nacht features Valentin Silvestrovs music for solo violoncello and for two cellos. German cellist Anja Lechner has had a long association with Silvestrov, ...
Composer: Valentin Silvestrov (1937)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
If it is possible for a group with over three decades of pioneering work to reintroduce itself, then that’s what Paradigm Lost does for the PRISM Quartet. After a string of important and boundary-busting releases on Innova, ECM, and many other labels, this collection firmly ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
They are widely recognised as the most exciting young string quartet of the present moment, bringing new insights to contemporary composition and core classical repertoire. In parallel, they have also made surprising and impressive forays ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
