For the follow-up of his ECM-leader-debut La traversée, French saxophonist Matthieu Bordenave expands his trio of German pianist Florian Weber and French bassist Patrice Moret with the unique sensibilities of drummer James Maddren, whose unrelenting pulse adds deft counterpoint to the group’s already idiosyncratic sound. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Mysterious tunes and soundscape: A striking musical rapport between Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Dutch pianist Harmen Fraanje is palpable in the duo’s quietly lyrical investigations on Touch of Time. These are delicate melodies and textures, flowing between two musicians, who are deeply in tune with nuances of tone-shadings and the ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Poetic nuances: “Gidon Kremer has perhaps never before revealed himself as intimately and as existentially focused as on this recording”, observes Wolfgang Sandner in his liner note accompanying the Latvian violinist’s new album Songs of Fate. Together with his Kremerata Baltica chamber ensemble ...
Composer: Raminta Šerkšnytė (1975), Giedrius Kuprevičius (1944), Jēkabs Jančevskis (1992), Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996)
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Vocal
With his inspired arrangements for folk instrumentation, Levon Eskenian has brought about a re-evaluation of the music of G.I. Gurdjieff (ca. 1877- 1949) and given us many new insights into the sources that inspired the Armenian-born esoteric teacher, philosopher and composer. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
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
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
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
“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
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
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
