Conception Vessel (Remastered)
With ECM’s encouragement drummer Paul Motian takes his first steps as project leader and composer, and an extraordinary album is realized. On the heels of the recording’s release in 1973, Stereo Review lauded Paul Motian, calling him “a modern traditionalist who can turn a set of drums into an orchestra without overshadowing his fellow players.” This debut is exemplary of this unique quality. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
As the title implies, Diary, the first entirely solo recording from Ralph Towner, is an intimate album. Its quiet reflections get to the heart of some outstanding Towner compositions including ”Icarus” and ”The Silence of a Candle” which receive definitive interpretations here, conveying the impression of ”an acoustic wonderworld” as Die Zeit ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
After the acclaimed run of quartet recordings from Not Far From Here (2019), The Next Door (2022) to Under The Surface (2025), German pianist Julia Hülsmann has decided to alter the narrative and up the ante with a newly formed octet of instrumentalists and vocalists. On While I Was Away Julia combines the line-up of a classical ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
With Convergence, his second solo album, Swedish-born bassist Björn Meyer further develops music on the blueprint established with his recording Provenance (2017), making use of the technical potential of the bass guitar to establish striking sonorities and grained textures while also being acutely aware of the acoustic space in which his sounds ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
The first release from Ozone Makoto's new label, "Mo-Zone." TRiNFiNiTY's second album celebrates the beauty of diversity in a world of perpetual division. Globally active pianist Ozone Makoto has launched a new jazz label, "Mo-Zone," with distribution support from Universal Music. The commemorative debut release is the second album from the trio "TRiNFiNiTY," formed in 2023 to mark the 40th anniversary of Ozone's debut. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
The trio-debut of pianist, composer and 2025 MacArthur Fellow Craig Taborn with Tomeka Reid and Ches Smith has been eagerly awaited. In its review of the group’s live show from Fall 2025 the German daily Hamburger Abendblatt found nothing put praise for their performance, calling it “unpredictable, exhilarating”. The trio’s approach on Dream Archives ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Turn up the speakers! An electric guitar is always at its best when it sounds truly electric, the glow of the strings burns into your ear, and the sound transcends itself in the amplification. It only gets more beautiful when it's two guitars singing electric. You don't have to look far to find excellent evidence ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Time Is A Blind Guide - Off Stillness
There’s a rare acoustic alchemy at play in Time Is A Blind Guide. Personnel changes have guided and co-shaped the musical character of Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen’s ensemble and on the group’s third recording we experience a slight shift in the line-up, with Leo Svensson Sander replacing Lucy Railton on cello. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Legendary drummer Billy Hart credits the great Rashied Ali for introducing him to the term “multidirectional” – a descriptor for the elusive, daring approach to the kit that Hart and others of his generation had developed intuitively in response to the increasing freedom and exploration of the era’s jazz experimentation. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
“An entirely new world of sound opened up for me. I had never heard early music like that before: so rich in colour, so immediately moving,” says violist Martin Stegner of his first experience playing Monteverdi with Wu Wei, master of the sheng. The range of colours that Wei can coax from his instrument is remarkable, as is the sonic blending of sheng, ...
Composer: Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
Guitarist John Scofield and bassist Dave Holland, two of jazz’s contemporary masters, have played together over the years in contexts including work with Herbie Hancock and Joe Henderson and a spirited co-led band with Joe Lovano and Al Foster called ScoLoHoFo. Memories of Home is their first duo album. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
By All Means is the new album from Aaron Parks due for release on November 7, 2025 via Blue Note Records, expanding the acclaimed Parks-Street-Hart jazz trio into a luminous acoustic quartet with the addition of tenor saxophonist Ben Solomon. This set of seven original compositions explores ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Sebastian Rochford is a singular force in British music, an extraordinary drummer, composer, and producer, his work with the iconic group Polar Bear helped redefine the boundaries of jazz and earned multiple Mercury Prize nominations. With a career spanning collaborations with Patti Smith, Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, Adele and Grace ...
Genre: Rock
Subgenre: Modern Rock
The striking cover image of an abandoned swing illuminated against a field of glittering stars makes a compelling visual metaphor for the music on Close. “Music is a twilight language,” Steve Tibbetts confirms. “The job is to translate some shadow into sound.” On his 11th ECM release the Minnesotan guitarist resumes the quest, slowly ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Brahms: String Quartets, Op. 51 Nos. 1 & 2
A central fixture in the world of string quartets for the past thirty years, the Zehetmair Quartett’s ECM recordings of Schumann, Hindemith, Bartók and Hartmann have received luminous praise—Gramophone lauded their Schumann as “Record of the Year”, while The Sunday Times described their Hindemith and Bartók performances as “playing of huge finesse in both ...
Composer: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
“Cooperation, interdependence and kindness” are the qualities that Meredith Monk emphasizes in Cellular Songs, “as an antidote to the values that are being propagated right now.” Of the work’s premiere performance the New York Times wrote, “Ms. Monk spun together divergent elements so fluidly that it created an unmistakable sense of hope. ...
Composer: Meredith Monk (1943)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
The Greek duo of lyra player Sokratis Sinopoulos and pianist Yann Keerim’s first studio statement is a deep well of inspired musical dialogues that cross the idiomatic space between European folk tradition and chamber-jazz seamlessly. Bartók’s six “Romanian Folk Dances” appear in newly shaped guises throughout the album, with Sokratis’s painterly lyra ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Jazz legend Charles Lloyd releases his latest musical offering, "Figure In Blue", a spacious double album of new studio recordings featuring the great saxophonist-flutist in the company of a new trio with pianist Jason Moran and guitarist Marvin Sewell. Lloyd’s 12th Blue Note album travels wide expanses of musical terrain from beautiful ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
With her unmistakable trumpet sound, Linnea Jonsson has emerged as one of the most expressive voices on today’s Nordic jazz scene. Now she takes the Fasching stage to celebrate the release of Hive Mind – a subtle yet powerful album built on collective artistry, featuring some of the most exciting young players in Scandinavia. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Dobrinka Tabakova’s ECM New Series debut, String Paths, made an immediate impact on its release in 2013. The Washington Times hailed it as an “exciting, deeply moving, original and triumphant” recording, while The Strad praised its “glowing tonal harmonies and grand, sweeping gestures.” Music from String Paths was ....
Composer: Dobrinka Tabakova (1980)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
