The Transitory Poems (Live At Liszt Academy, Budapest / 2018)
Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn, two of creative music’s most resourceful players, learned to meld and mesh their artistic approaches inside Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory ensemble (as documented on Mitchell’s 2007 recording Far Side). Since then, Iyer and Taborn have continued ...
Genre: Instrumental
Subgenre: Piano
Four years after the critically lauded Eight Winds the Athens-based Sokratis Sinopolous Quartet returns with the aptly-named Metamodal. A unique band, the quartet subtly sifts a vast pool of influence, its music informed by the players’ experience of folk forms, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre:
With Absinthe, his second release for ECM, guitarist Dominic Miller has created an album colored by a distinct atmosphere. “The first thing that came to me before I wrote any tunes was the title,” he says. “Living in the South of France, I am fascinated by Impressionism. Sharp light and witchy mistrals, combined with strong alcohol and intense hangovers must have ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Guitarist-composer David Torn, a longstanding ECM artist, has enjoyed a particularly fruitful 21st-century with the label, releasing two albums under his own name – the solo only sky and quartet disc prezens – in addition to producing records by Tim Berne and Michael Formanek. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
Larry Grenadier’s The Gleaners is a profound and highly creative album, harvesting influences from many sources, its title inspired by Agnès Varda’s film The Gleaners and I. In between his own pieces here, including a dedication to early hero Oscar Pettiford, Grenadier explores compositions by George Gershwin, ...
Composer: Larry Grenadier
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Trumpeter Ralph Alessi’s first two ECM albums as a leader – Baida (2013) and Quiver (2016) – justly earned him high praise. The New York Times lauded the “elegant precision and power” of Baida, while The Guardian extolled Quiver, pointing to the leader’s “flawless technique ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
In 2016, the release of Mats Eilertsen’s album Rubicon gave notice of the breadth of the Norwegian bassist’s compositional range as well as his capacity to direct an ensemble of strong individual voices. Long an important contributor to ECM recordings, and appearing on albums by Tord Gustavsen, Trygve Seim, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Israeli-French pianist Yonathan Avishai has made important contributions to the music of Avishai Cohen, as documented on Into The Silence and Cross My Palm With Silver. In parallel, over the last five years, he has been developing his own project with the trio heard here, with Paris-based ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
The great saxophonist Joe Lovano has appeared on a number of ECM recordings over the last four decades, including much-loved albums with Paul Motian, Steve Kuhn and John Abercrombie. Trio Tapestry is his first as a leader for the label, introducing a wonderful new group and music of flowing lyricism, ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou’s new album draws upon music created for two special projects: Tous des oiseaux, a play by Lebanese-Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad, and Bomb, A Love Story, a film by Iranian actor-director Payman Maadi. Tous des oiseaux, has won great acclaim for its ...
Composer: Eleni Karaindrou (1939)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Andrew Cyrille’s title Lebroba is a contraction of Leland, Brooklyn and Baltimore, birthplaces of the protagonists of an album bringing together three of creative music’s independent thinkers. Each of them made his first ECM appearance long ago: drummer Andrew Cyrille on Marion Brown’s Afternoon of a Georgia Faun (1970) ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
In his second ECM appearance (following a critically-acclaimed duo recording with Markus Stockhausen) pianist Florian Weber leads a strong cast through a programme of his compositions and sketches. Whether paying tribute to mentor Lee Konitz on “Honestlee”, impressionistically conveying the glittering “Melody of a Waterfall” ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
German cellist Anja Lechner and Argentinean guitarist Pablo Márquez met in 2003 and have since explored the most diverse repertoire and modes of expression in their concerts. For their first duo album, a conceptual context is provided by the strong tradition of songs with guitar accompaniment prevalent in ...
Composer: Franz Schubert 1797-1828
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
From its inception, John Potter’s Dowland Project has drawn upon different musical traditions including those of ‘early music’ and improvisation. These “Night Sessions” emphasize the Project’s improvisational flexibility and resourcefulness, as the musicians create new music in the moment, sometimes with medieval poetry as inspirational reference ...
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
La Fenice (Live At Teatro La Fenice, Venice / 2006)
Recorded in Venice, in 2006, ‘La Fenice’ finds Keith Jarrett unleashing a torrent of imagination, creating a masterpiece in a moment. While there’s no doubt that Keith Jarrett is a supremely versatile musician at home in myriad musical contexts, ...
Composer: Keith Jarrett
Genre: Instrumental
Subgenre: Piano
J.S. Bach: Six Suites for Viola Solo
The poetry and radiance of Bachs cello suites (BWV 1007-1012) are transfigured in these remarkable interpretations by Kim Kashkashian on viola, offering a different kind of somberness, a different kind of dazzlement as annotator Paul Griffiths observes. One of the most compelling performers of ...
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
The Italian double bassist and composer Stefano Scodanibbio (1956-2012) created extraordinary music for his instrument. Alisei (Trade Winds) features his compositions for solo bass, for two basses, and for bass ensemble. ...
Composer: Stefano Scodanibbio (1956-2012)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
Where The River Goes carries the story forward from Wolfgang Muthspiel’s highly-acclaimed Rising Grace recording of 2016, reuniting the Austrian guitarist with Brad Mehldau, Ambrose Akinmusire and Larry Grenadier, heavy talents all, and bringing in the great Eric Harland on drums. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Bay Of Rainbows (Live At The Jazz Standard, New York / 2017)
“There is no hurry to this music, but there is great depth,” observed London Jazz News about Danish guitarist Jakob Bro’s trio with two kindred-spirit Americans: bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Joey Baron. This poetically attuned group follows its ECM studio album of 2016, Streams – which The New York Times ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Widmann: Arche (Live at Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg / 2017)
Commissioned to write new music to inaugurate the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, composer Jörg Widmann drew inspiration from the shape of the building itself: “From the outside it resembles a ship. To me, the interior looked like the hold of a ship, an ark…Re-emerging into the daylight, the ark idea would not leave me alone. ...
Composer: Jörg Widmann (1973)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
