It was in 1993 when Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble, a vocal quartet from Britain focused on music of the Renaissance, have first recorded together. Their outstanding piece “Officium”, ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Classical Crossover
Is it fair for baroque to sound so sensual? An elegiac soprano voice wafts above an instrumental piece by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger. Flamenco rhythms underpin a passacaglia. Then suddenly we hear the typical harmonies and ornaments ...
Composer: Kapsberger, Piccinini, Narvaez, Frescobaldi
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
On “Nuove Musiche”, his highly successful ECM debut released in spring 2006, Norwegian master lutenist led his own group of international early music virtuosi. The album presented ravishing and most unorthodox accounts ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
Concerts: Bregenz, München (Live)
The Bregenz/Munich concerts were Jarrett’s most brilliant live solo recordings to date; his level of inspiration is quite extraordinary, and the music covers a wider musical and emotional range than ever.”
Genre: Instrumental
Subgenre: Piano
Momo Kodma’s first ECM New Series album is a marvel, a mesmerizing journey from the shimmering surfaces of Miroirs, Ravel’s piano cycle of 1904-45 to Messiaen’s Fauvette des jardins (written in 1970), a late masterpiece ...
Composer: Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Toru Takemitsu 1930-1996), Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Piano
There are magic moments when an artist can be said to have well and truly “arrived.” For Ralph Alessi, the release of Baida – his ECM debut as a bandleader – is just such a moment, despite his already extensive resume.
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
Acclaim for the first, eponymous album from saxophonist-composer Tim Berne’s acoustic quartet Snakeoil came from far and wide: All About Jazz described the music as “unpredictable and fresh,” while The Guardian called ...
Composer: Tim Berne
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
The evocative ECM debut of the outstanding Hungarian guitarist Zsófia Boros addresses a broad range of composition for her instrument, drawing on music of the Americas. “Often I think I am holding the choice of music in my own ...
Composer: Francisco Calleja (1891–1950), Vicente Amigo (*1967), Dominic Miller (*1960), Leo Brouwer (*1939), Abel Fleury (1903 –1958), Ralph Towner (*1940), Dilermando Reis (1916 –1977), Martin Reiter (*1978), Quique Sinesi (*1960), Leo Brouwer
Genre: Guitar
Subgenre: Classical Guitar
Ludwig van Beethoven: Diabelli-Variationen
Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations are considered a magnum opus of the piano repertoire, a towering contribution to the genre and an entire encyclopaedia of pianism. Following his monumental exploration of the 32 Sonatas, ...
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Piano
An international summit meeting, “Travel Guide” features US guitarist Ralph Towner, Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Kazakhstan-born and Australia-raised guitarist Slava Grigoryan. The three musicians first came together ...
Composer: Ralph Towner (*1940), Wolfgang Muthspiel
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
John Abercrombie's revised quartet - his last album, 'Within a Song', featured Joe Lovano in the line-up - provides Marc Copland with his first appearance on ECM. Yet the renowned guitarist and pianist are old allies, with an association ...
Composer: John Abercrombie
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow revisit classic Bley compositions in an exceptional album recorded in Lugano last year by Manfred Eicher. Included here are spirited new versions of “Utviklingssang” and “Vashkar”, ...
Composer: Carla Bley
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
South Korean singer Yeahwon Shin’s ECM debut, “Lua ya” is a gentle album of songs and lullabies, recorded in 2012 in the spacious acoustics of Mechanics Hall, near Boston. It’s a very intuitive set, shaped by “improvising, listening to our ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
Italy’s creative piano virtuoso Stefano Bollani meets Hamilton de Holanda, Brazil’s peerless master of the bandolim, the 10-string mandolin. O que será is a summery celebration of the joy of music-making, radiating an ...
Composer: Stefano Bollani
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
Of the Norwegian artists that ECM has introduced over the years, pianist Tord Gustavsen must count as one of the least “Nordic” in musical temperament. If the contemplative component of his music and its quietude still reflect ...
Composer: Tord Gustavsen
Genre: Jazz
Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem has singlehandedly rewritten the history of his instrument, elevating its status to self-contained orchestra. Like a film director whose camera is a third eye, he paints in moving images ...
Composer: Various
Genre: World Music
Subgenre: Worldbeat
Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen views “Being There” as the third instalment of a trilogy that began with “Changing Places” (recorded 2001 and 2002) and continued with “The Ground” (recorded 2004).
Composer: Tord Gustavsen, Harald Johnsen
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
The fifth ECM disc from Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble whose pioneering work has effectively established a model for a new kind of improvising chamber orchestra, creating fresh colours from the blending and contrasting ...
Composer: Evan Parker [Non-Classical Composer]
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Mainstream Jazz
The ensemble of Christian Wallumrød continues to evolve in its own idiosyncratic way on Outstairs. By now, Wallumrød’s compositional signature is instantly recognizable. Nobody else writes pieces like this – multi-dimensional ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
