Strands (Live at the Danish Radio Concert Hall)
“When we walked out on stage it felt like a homecoming,” says guitarist Jakob Bro of this texturally spacious and emotionally charged live recording from Copenhagen, on which three of the defining protagonists of improvisation in Denmark, leading musicians from three generations of Danish jazz, come together. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Tractus emphasizes Arvo Pärt compositions that blend the timbres of choir and string orchestra. New versions predominate, with focused performances from the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste’s direction that invite alert and concentrated listening. From the opening composition Littlemore ...
Composer: Arvo Pärt (1935)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Choral
Call on the Old Wise is Nitai Hershkovits’ first record for ECM, presenting his powerful pianistic ingenuity in a largely improvised solo setting. Nitai’s improvisations unfold like compositions being created in real-time: “It’s like I’m playing with several periods of music at once, but in a sort of augmented-reality-environment,” ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Azimuth was the blueprint for the band's own 'samba doido'/ 'crazy samba' sound. Released in the summer of 1975, the album was a minor commercial success selling around 200,000 copies, but it's now recognised as an essential piece of Brazilian music history. Surely the rawest and funkiest of Azymuth's albums, every track exudes the brimming energy ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Avantgarde Jazz
Named for the Grateful Dead song that concludes this double album, Uncle John’s Band features masterful guitarist John Scofield at his most freewheeling. Wide ranging repertoire finds his trio with Vicente Archer and Bill Stewart tackling material from Dylan’s “Mr Tambourine Man” to Neil Young’s “Old Man”, from Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere” ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Thomas Larcher: The Living Mountain
Austrian composer Thomas Larcher’s new album features premiere recordings of three strongly contrasting works. The Living Mountain, composed 2019-20, draws inspiration from Scottish poet and nature writer Nan Shepherd’s book of the same name. Having grown up in Tyrol and familiar with ...
Composer: Thomas Larcher (1963)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
Wolfgang Muthspiel and his working trio with Scott Colley on bass and Brian Blade on drums reaches a new creative peak on Dance of the Elders. The album is the group’s follow-up to the much-lauded Angular Blues, which The Times called a “quietly impressive album” that highlights “Muthspiel’s fluidly melodic playing style“. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
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
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
