Released in 1981, the debut of the legendary keyboardist from Eberhard Weber’s Colours band and later the Jan Garbarek Group, Freigeweht presented Rainer Brüninghaus as a highly original and idiosyncratic sound sculptor in his own right, accompanied by ECM stalwarts Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn and drummer Jon Christensen as well as oboist Brynjar Hoff. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Recorded in Oslo in September 1970, Afric Pepperbird was released on New Year’s Day in 1971. Half a century later, it still conveys the freshness and excitement of discoveries being made. The album signalled the arrival of four Norwegian improvisers – Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen – at the ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
The fabulous Chicago collective focus all their energies in a wide ranging programme embracing a tribute to Mingus, an “Old Southside Street Dance”, echoes of Africa, contemporary composition and free improvising. "Full Force begins in cool breath and ends in scalding heat, the inhalation and exhalation of its own mission. As one comes to expect from any AEC outing, tonal colors are on a ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
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
Terje Rypdal is an album by Norwegian jazz guitarist Terje Rypdal recorded over two days in August 1971 and released on ECM later that year. The septet features singer Inger Lise Rypdal, saxophonist Jan Garbarek, oboist Ekkehard Fintl, and rhythm section Bobo Stenson, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen. ...
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 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
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
“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
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
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
Wolfgang Muthspiel and his trio with Scott Colley on bass and Brian Blade on drums (“Together they have something of the empathy of the Bill Evans trio” – Downbeat) go into their third recording-venture swinging, setting the stage for what may be the group’s most adventurous trio recording with a delicate reading of Keith Jarrett’s “Lisbon Stomp”. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Recorded live in Birmingham during a Contemporary Music Network tour in January 2002, Tramonto finds UK pianist John Taylor (1942-2015) in celebratory, outgoing mood, fronting one of his most dynamic and quick-witted groups, with US musicians Marc Johnson and Joey Baron – the energetic team that would collaborate on the critically-lauded ECM recording ...
Composer: John Taylor (1942-2015)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Estonian vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis and their leader Jaan-Eik Tulve have established themselves among the leading interpreters of Arvo Pärt’s music over a quarter-century of close collaboration with the composer – a relationship that builds on the almost half a century long artistic partnership ...
Composer: Arvo Pärt (1935)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre:
