Henry Purcell’s “fantazias” are regarded as some of the finest and most intricately wrought examples of the fantasia, due to their profound embrace of counterpoint and great command of the polyphonal techniques of the time. Composed in the summer of 1680 – a time when the fantasia was already considered old-fashioned and had been replaced by the sonata ...
Composer: Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
In his Éventail de musique française, Swiss oboist and composer Heinz Holliger traverses a broad selection of French works for oboe and piano in a multichromatic programme of early 20th century music. Contained in this wide-ranging recital are compositions by Ravel, Debussy, Milhaud, Saint-Saëns, Casadesus as well as Koechlin, Jolivet and Messiaen – Holliger cultivated a personal relationship with several of the composers. ...
Composer: Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Charles Koechlin (1867-1950), Andre Jolivet (1905-1974), Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921), Robert Casadesus (1899-1972)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Chamber Music
“Being in a room with Sinikka Langeland is like being charmed into a northern forest under a night sky,” wrote Fiona Talkington in Songlines. “Her presence and her voice are magical, but when she plays her kantele you can almost feel nature itself quivering with joy.” (Fiona Talkington, Songlines) ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Frozen Silence is the third ECM release from alto saxophonist Maciej Obara’s Polish-Norwegian quartet, bringing the story forward from Unloved and Three Crowns, recordings which confirmed the ensemble’s standing as one of the most strikingly original European bands of the present moment. The quartet’s creative sense of musical interplay is again to ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
The elemental power of ancient folk music was the life force that drove the compositions of Veljo Tormis (1930-2017). As the great Estonian composer famously said, “I do not use folk song. It is folk song that uses me.” This sentiment is echoed in definitive performances by the Estonian Philharmonic Choir and the Tallinn Chamber ...
Composer: Veljo Tormis (1930-2017)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Conception Vessel (2023 Remaster)
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 ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Avantgarde Jazz
Finnish percussionist Edward Vesala’s debut on ECM Records may also be his most fiery outing for the label. On the album, Vesala assembles a particularly lively big band of Finns, who interpret his music with blazing colours. In 1976, when the album was released, Melody Maker suggested that “John Coltrane ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
The Music Improvisation Company (2023 Remaster)
The Music Improvisation Company documents the coming together of some of Britain’s most adventurous improvisers – guitar experimentalist Derek Bailey, saxophonist Evan Parker, electronics-man Hugh Davies and percussionist Jamie Muir –, combining their multiple-idioms spanning reach in a fiery display of collective ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Avantgarde Jazz
Mountainscapes (2023 Remaster)
Barre Phillips’s Mountainscapes brings together strongly contrasting elements, the furious high-energy playing of the Surman/Phillips/Martin trio juxtaposed with spacious impressionistic pieces originally created for Carolyn Carlson’s ballet dancers. The integration of acoustic instruments and electronics ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Free Jazz
Journal October - Solo Cello (2023 Remaster)
David Darling’s inspired contribution to Ralph Towner’s Old Friends, New Friends in June 1979 led to the scheduling of this solo cello album four months later. An exploration of atmospheres and textures, with imaginative use of overdubbing to create rich waves of string sound, Journal October was an influential ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
Illusion Suite (2023 Remaster)
On Illusion Suite, “the charms are quiet”, as Down Beat put it, reviewing the album in 1974. “it creeps up on you and hits you in the ear in subtle ways. Things you hadn’t noticed keep jumping out. This album most directly and accurately pictures [Stanley Cowell’s] fresh keyboard approach”. On the album – Cowell’s only recording for ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Hard Bop
An early document of Jan Garbarek as free improviser on ECM, "Triptykon" sees the saxophonist paired up with his Norwegian cohort Arild Andersen and the Finnish percussionist Edward Vesala. The Swiss weekly Weltwoche had high praise for the album in the year of its release: “In this Norwegian triptych, free jazz has found a ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Free Jazz
Chick Corea’s first leader date for ECM, recorded in January 1971, emphasized his creative alliance with Dave Holland. The pianist and bassist had bonded musically during their years with Miles Davis and both were committed to extending the possibilities of improvisation in a period when, as Corea would put it ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Avantgarde Jazz
Sol Do Meio Dia (2023 Remaster)
On this 1978 album, the Brazilian guitarist Egberto Gismonti is accompanied by his frequent collaborator on percussion, Nana Vasconcelos, as well as Ralph Towner, Collin Walcott and Jan Garbarek – all of them being or having been ECM stalwarts. The album is inspired by Egberto’s time spent with the Xingu of the Amazon, to ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Latin Jazz
Stanko’s first for ECM, and a splendid introduction to the “predatory lyricism” that is the Polish trumpeter’s stylistic trademark. "I can only imagine the reactions Tomasz Stanko garnered with Balladyna, his first recording for ECM. The no-holds-barred “First Song” jumps into action with that hard swing that can only come from Dave Holland. ....
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Free Jazz
Occasionally accompanied by oboist Paul McCandless and by Colin Walcott on tabla, Ralph Towner’s first recording on ECM, in collaboration with bassist Glenn Moore, demonstrates the guitarist in various chamber musical settings, improvising sketches as well as more elaborate musical forms with capable counterparts. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
The Colours Of Chloë (2023 Remaster)
“Symphonic jazz - picturesque, romantic, at times rhythmically involved, at others minimalistic and harmonically abstruse,” is how Allmusic describes Eberhard Weber’s ECM debut from 1974, calling it an “ambitious”, “and influential work”. On the record, the bassist is joined by the cellos of the Südfunk ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
Inflation Blues (2023 Remaster)
A roller coaster“, „with parabolic orbits of rim-shots, rolls, and cymbal washes wiping down the sides. Jack DeJohnette again illustrates why he’s one of the leading drummers of this era” Down Beat, 1983. On Inflation Blues, Jack DeJohnette takes his Special Edition band down unexplored avenues with a strong ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Avantgard Jazz
Keith Jarrett’s account of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Württemberg Sonatas is a revelation. “I’d heard the sonatas played by harpsichordists, and felt there was a space left for a piano version,” says Jarrett today. This outstanding recording, made in May 1994 and previously unreleased, finds the pianist attuned to the expressive implications of the sonatas in ...
Composer: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Instrumental
"A Time To Remember" is a continuation of the special synergy that inhabited Elina Duni’s acclaimed Lost Ships and finds her regrouping with that album’s quartet of guitarist Rob Luft, Matthieu Michel on flugelhorn and Fred Thomas on percussion and piano. As the title suggests, the notion of ‘time’ pulls through the programme like a theme, connecting ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
