The fourth New Series album from the St Petersburg-based composer Alexander Knaifel may be his most wide-ranging to date, voyaging from the sacred to the secular and back again via several inspired detours. It includes two Prayers to the Holy Spirit, movingly performed by the Lege ...
Composer: Alexander Knaifel
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
All four of Arvo Pärt’s symphonies, newly recorded with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic under the direction of one of Pärt’s most trusted colleagues, Tõnu Kaljuste. Each of the symphonies, as the great Estonian composer has noted, is a world unto itself. ...
Composer: Arvo Pärt (1935)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Orchestral
Cosmic Games: The higher we get, the less earthly boundaries matter. It is to heaven, therefore, that Cycle aspires. Here, three rarely combined instruments – organ, saxophone and piano – are suddenly speaking as one. Already in the late-70s, Jan Garbarek and Kjell ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Guitarist Nels Cline debuts a new band with the April 13 release of Currents, Constellations (Blue Note) featuring The Nels Cline 4, an intrepid unit that builds upon Cline’s acclaimed collaboration with guitarist Julian Lage by adding the fierce and versatile rhythm section of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Tom Rainey. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Fusion
Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu makes his ECM debut with a striking album of his own rigorous-yet-lyrical music, sensitively played by a trio formed especially for this recording, with US guitarist Ben Monder and Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
Norwegian master bassist Arild Andersen's trio with big-toned tenorist Tommy Smith and powerhouse drummer Paolo Vinaccia is one of the most viscerally exciting jazz small groups of the present moment. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
"Danish guitarist Jakob Bro creates magical music, impossible to categorize", wrote Downbeat recently. On 'Returnings' the magic is intensified as Bro and musical soul-mate Thomas Morgan reconnect with two living legends of European jazz, trumpeter Palle ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Music IS – to be released March 16 on OKeh/Sony Music Masterworks – marks the long awaited solo album from the master of his craft.. "Playing solo is always a challenge," Frisell says. "For me, music has all along been so much about playing with other people. Having a conversation. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
The group colloquially known as “the Standards trio” has made many outstanding recordings, and After The Fall must rank with the very best of them. “I was amazed to hear how well the music worked,” writes Keith Jarrett in his liner note. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
One of the pleasures of Mathias Eick s Midwest album was hearing his vaulting trumpet supported by violin, an instrumental combination further developed on Ravensburg. The new violinist in Eicks ensemble is Hakon Aase, one of the up-and-coming players of the new Norwegian scene, whom attentive ECM ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
Andy Sheppards quartet extends the musical explorations begun on the 2015 release Surrounded By Sea, an album praised by Télérama for its poignant serenity. In this new program of compositions by Sheppard (plus the title track by Brazilian singer-songwriter Renato Teixeira), ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
A creative journey into the world of cinema with new arrangements - by Klaus Gesing and Glauco Venier - of music by Nino Rota, Michel Legrand, William Walton, Bernard Herrmann, and Ennio Morricone for the movies of Scorsese, Godard, Wenders, Jewison, Zeffirelli, Olivier and more. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre:
An ECM debut for a unique Japanese-French-German trio, with a lyrical sound of its own. Drummer-leader Shinya Fukumori, also the principal composer for the band, is an imaginative melodist at several levels, and the attention to timbre and detail and space which distinguishes ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
After two ECM albums with the cooperative trio Third Reel, Swiss reedman Nicolas Masson presents a quartet for which he is the sole composer. The group has existed for a decade with unchanged personnel, touring as Nicolas Massons Parallels, and the leaders writing for it always encourages ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Saxophonist and clarinettist John Surman is often characterized as a quintessentially English improviser and composer, and hints of folk music and a pastoral ambience are attributes of his music on well-loved albums like 'The Road to Saint Ives' or his last ECM recording, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
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
