Forthcoming ECM releases

[Claude]

Although I prefer the sound of the LPs for the 70's and early 80's ECM recordings, I think that the CD mastering has been well done as from the beginning (1985 or 86), so that there is no need to remaster them.

The only CD that I have been disappointed with is Chick Corea's "ARC". The LP sounds so much better, something must have gone wrong for the CD mastering (maybe the original tapes were missing).

[king ubu]

So for instance the recent Touchstones were using the same masters?

I didn't "upgrade" any, but I could have bought "Gnu High" dirt cheap and thought about it for a second, as these Touchstones look nice and the old CD looks ugly (ECM took quite a while to fit their highly estheticized needs to the CD age, it seems...)

[Bluerein]

King: they are not remastered and are clones of the earlier versions. I would keep the older issues since the cd is almost unable to obtain out of the digipack.....I hate these versions.

[king ubu]

Thanks!

I've bought about 15 of the Touchstones. I agree that they're a bit awkward, but they do look nice!

[gutrotfrenzy]

I have very little good to say about ECM, so I won't say much, but where are reissues of these:

Music Improvisation Company

Derek Bailey & Dave Holland: Improvisations for Cello and Guitar

Paul Bley: Ballads

Especially that Music Improvisation Company record is absolutely essential.

Also, I don't know if this anymore available:

Edward Vesala: Nan Madol

Bloody well should be.

Edited November 19, 2009 by Gutrotfrenzy

[David Ayers]

Well, you could ask Steve Lake over on AAJ. Some of these have been on CD in Japan. We had the recent Manfred Schoof but I guess you're right that this would be a bridge too far. Always worth asking though...

[7/4]

I have very little good to say about ECM, so I won't say much, but where are reissues of these:

Especially that Music Improvisation Company record is absolutely essential.

Also, I don't know if this anymore available:

Bloody well should be.

I think it was only out in Japan briefly a few years ago.

[JETman]

I have very little good to say about ECM, so I won't say much, but where are reissues of these:

Especially that Music Improvisation Company record is absolutely essential.

Also, I don't know if this anymore available:

Bloody well should be.

I think it was only out in Japan briefly a few years ago.

A curiosity for lovers of Larks era Crim!!!

[7/4]

I have very little good to say about ECM, so I won't say much, but where are reissues of these:

Especially that Music Improvisation Company record is absolutely essential.

Also, I don't know if this anymore available:

Bloody well should be.

I think it was only out in Japan briefly a few years ago.

A curiosity for lovers of Larks era Crim!!!

My introduction to free improv. I originally bought this on vinyl around '78-'80 because it had Jamie Muir from King Crimson, I didn't know any thing about the music. I saw an ad in the Village Voice for a store closing sale on Broadway somewhere between 14th and 32nd streets and this was the only thing that looked interesting.

[JETman]

I have very little good to say about ECM, so I won't say much, but where are reissues of these:

Especially that Music Improvisation Company record is absolutely essential.

Also, I don't know if this anymore available:

Bloody well should be.

I think it was only out in Japan briefly a few years ago.

A curiosity for lovers of Larks era Crim!!!

My introduction to free improv. I originally bought this on vinyl around '78-'80 because it had Jamie Muir from King Crimson, I didn't know any thing about the music. I saw an ad in the Village Voice for a store closing sale on Broadway somewhere between 14th and 32nd streets and this was the only thing that looked interesting.

Now you know why the store was closing!

[WorldB3]

Thanks!

I've bought about 15 of the Touchstones. I agree that they're a bit awkward, but they do look nice!

Because shelf space is so limited for me I love the Touchstone packaging.

I can't think of any ECM release where I think that it desperately needs a remaster. Anybody?

[gutrotfrenzy]

I have very little good to say about ECM, so I won't say much, but where are reissues of these:

Especially that Music Improvisation Company record is absolutely essential.

Also, I don't know if this anymore available:

Bloody well should be.

I think it was only out in Japan briefly a few years ago.

Yes, I know about the Japanese reissue, but that's just a band-aid, what really should be done, is a proper ECM-reissue.

The photos I posted didn't show, so here's in writing the whole list:

Music Improvisation Company

Derek Bailey & Dave Holland: Improvisations for Cello and Guitar

Paul Bley: Ballads

Also, I don't know if this anymore available:

Edward Vesala: Nan Madol

And I have all these on vinyl, so in that sense I con't care, but I'm just disliking ECM that much more for not reissuing properly such relevant records. Nan Madol used to be available on CD, but I think it's long sold out.

[7/4]

Yes, I know about the Japanese reissue, but that's just a band-aid, what really should be done, is a proper ECM-reissue.

The photos I posted didn't show, so here's in writing the whole list:

Music Improvisation Company

Derek Bailey & Dave Holland: Improvisations for Cello and Guitar

Paul Bley: Ballads

I totally agree, there's a couple of others that never came out on CD that I'd like to get my ears on too. The release of the titles in the first post gives a bit of hope. There's some titles in this series (including last years batch) that I was wondering if I'd ever see them released on CD.

[David Ayers]

I can't think of any ECM release where I think that it desperately needs a remaster. Anybody?

Well the late 80s and early 90s digital titles I have heard didn't stand up too well at the time and even less so now, I should think.

[king ubu]

bought the recent Fresu/Towner (Chiaroscuro) as an x-mas present for my mother (I think...) - sounds pretty nice!

Ralph Towner

Paolo Fresu

Chiaroscuro

Ralph Towner classical, 12-string and baritone guitars

Paolo Fresu trumpet, flugelhorn

Wistful Thinking

Punta Giara

Chiaroscuro

Sacred Place

Blue In Green

Doubled Up

Zephyr

The Sacred Place (reprise)

Two Miniatures

Postlude

Recorded October 2008

ECM 2085

An exciting new duo, of unusual instrumentation, initiated by American master guitarist Ralph Towner. Towner’s acoustic guitar concept has long since absorbed and abstracted influences from baroque music, contemporary composition, Brazilian music and jazz, above all the jazz of Bill Evans. In this programme of Towner originals and improvisations, the sole cover version is “Blue In Green”. the Bill Evans/Miles Davis tune from the classic “Kind of Blue” album – an apt choice for Sardinia-born trumpeter Paolo Fresu, whose pure and elegant tone still carries echoes of early Miles. Towner’s own pieces offer continually changing landscapes for Fresu’s horn to grace, in a very poetic and lyrical set whose gradations of light and shade, of sound and shadows, are beautifully recorded. “Chiaroscuro” is Towner’s 22nd ECM disc as a leader and Fresu’s first - although the trumpeter guest-starred on Carla Bley’s prize-winning “The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu”, issued on WATT in 2007.

source and more

[A Lark Ascending]

This aforementioned combination of three early albums now has a late-March release date (in the UK):

[AmirBagachelles]

The Green Into Blue release will hopefully trigger some appearances of well-cared-for vinyl in the Just Arrived bins at my local shops. I loved this music in the late 70s, and I look forward to spending some sublime moments with it again. These will be complete re-releases of the 3 LPs, or so it appears.

[sambrasa]

This is a good news indeed. If they'd get Arild Andersen's "Lifelines" re-issued as well. That's the one with Paul Motian, Kenny Wheeler and Steve Dobrogosz. Meantime, I see Carla Bley's "Tropic Appetites," an absolutely splendid album for WATT / ECM, has gone out of print, and fetches obscene money on amazon shops.

[A Lark Ascending]

This is a good news indeed. If they'd get Arild Andersen's "Lifelines" re-issued as well. That's the one with Paul Motian, Kenny Wheeler and Steve Dobrogosz. Meantime, I see Carla Bley's "Tropic Appetites," an absolutely splendid album for WATT / ECM, has gone out of print, and fetches obscene money on amazon shops.

'Tropic Appetites' is available on iTunes. Agree, it's a marvellous album - anyone who could never bite off 'Escalator' might like to try 'Tropic' - it's like a chamber music version of that 'opera'. Julie Tippetts is in amazing voice on some of the tracks.

Don't know 'Lifelines' but if Kenny Wheeler is aboard, then I'd like to see it too.

[David Ayers]

As well as the Paul Motian we discussed in another thread, recent and upcoming releases include the following:

Jasmine by Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden

Oylam by Judith Berkson

Quiet Inlet by Food, Iain Ballamy, Thomas Stronen, and Nils Petter Molvaer

Crime Scene by Terje Rypdal

Remembrance by Ketil Bjornstad, Tore Brunborg, and Jon Christensen

Solo Piano: Improvisations/Child... Songs by Chick Corea

Green in Blue: Early Quartets by Arild Andersen

Third Round by Manu Katche

[Chuck Nessa]

Not a 'dis' but there is nothing there I'd buy.

[kh1958]

I would buy the Terje Rypdal and Manu Katche and probably will.

[GA Russell]

I like Manu Katche. The name Ketil Bjornstad sure rings a bell. I think he was on an ECM that came out in 2009.

[Aggie87]

I like Manu Katche. The name Ketil Bjornstad sure rings a bell. I think he was on an ECM that came out in 2009.

He was on a recent live album with Terje Rypdal, called Life in Leipzig I believe. Very nice album. They also did a couple of ECM albums in the 90's together, The Sea and The Sea II.

[David Ayers]

Depends on your tolerance for Nordic Twilight. Also a bit of Giddy Pixie music in there. And this lady, who I confess I had never heard of: http://judithberkson.com/