Improvising vocalist, folk singer, storyteller, pianist: on her ECM debut Areni Agbabian focuses the range of her skills in music that casts a quiet spell. A sparse music in which voice, piano and the subtle percussion of Nicolas Stocker (last heard on ECM with Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile ensemble), ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Franz Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus
In the latest chapter in András Schiff’s ongoing documentation of Franz Schubert’s music, the great pianist plays the Four Impromptus D 899, and compositions from 1828, the last year of Schubert’s too brief life: The Three Pieces D 946 (“impromptus in all but name” notes Misha Donat ...
Composer: Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
Epistrophy (Live At The Village Vanguard, New York, NY / 2016)
Like the duo’s acclaimed ECM release Small Town of 2017 – which The Guardian called “wistful and mesmerizing… tonally ingenious and haunting” – the new Epistrophy by guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan was recorded at New York City’s Village Vanguard. The album once again captures ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
“Avec Le Temps” is the new exciting Giovanni Guidi’s project: the band has recorded an album for ECM that will be released on March 2019 and it is composed by the most talented italian musicians: Francesco Bearzatti on tenor sax/clarinet (the most important italian sax player of ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
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
