ECM New Releases

[Chuck Nessa]

Sorry, this reminds me of a comment by an old friend - "ECM rhymes with phlegm."

[mjzee]

Release date December 6:

Dynamic extremes are explored and tuneful hooks - some melody, some harmony, others beat-based - patiently assembled, often completed in mesmerizing fashion. Where subtle rhythmic twists and harmonic progressions constructed around piano triads recall cutting-edge inspirations from the world of art-rock, other expositions reveal a tight-knit jazz trio elaborating a chamber sound focused on close listening and reacting. Recorded at Lugano's Auditorio Stelio Molo in 2023, Samares was produced by Manfred Eicher.

[soulpope]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/25/keith-jarrett-gary-peacock-paul-motian-the-old-country-review-ecm

[mjzee]

Release date December 6:

Vocalist and violinist Alice Zawadzki, pianist Fred Thomas and bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado present a rare alchemy on their trio debut, fusing folk idioms from a multitude of sources with free-flowing interplay and fluid structures. Inhabiting their own stylistic realm, the trio encompasses folk song, chamber music, improvisation and acoustic jazz, and on Za G?rami they present the full span of their reach in a mesmerizing whole. The album was recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher.

 

Release date January 3:

"Taking Turns", recorded in New York's Avatar Studio in 2014, finds Danish guitarist Jakob Bro joined by a multi-generational cast of improvisers, highly distinctive players all. Lee Konitz, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Frisell, Jason Moran and Thomas Morgan lend their energies to a session that bypasses conventions of the "all-star" band and puts the emphasis on teamwork. Bro's space-conscious music encourages fresh responses: an atmospheric hint, or a fragment of gentle melody, opening new trails to explore.

To the Rising Moon is Stephan Micus' 26th solo album for ECM. It features instruments from Colombia, India, Xinjiang (China), Bavaria, Cambodia, Egypt and Borneo, but taking center stage is the Colombian tiple, slightly smaller than an acoustic guitar. The sunny plucked sound of the tiples alternates with darker bowed strings, which bring a more meditative mood. Once again, Stephan Micus takes us on a unique musical journey to places unknown that couldn't have been created or played by anyone else.

Arild Andersen, one of the most widely acclaimed bassists in jazz, presents his first solo album. Choice of repertoire in this recital reflects on Arild's artistic journey and, alongside Andersen originals, we find Norwegian traditional music, a romantic jazz standard and new light cast upon free-jazz classics. Andersen's performances combine his masterful bass playing with real-time creation of electronic loops that bring an atmospheric dimension to solo playing and fresh opportunities for interaction.

Musical messages from Oslo, New York, Basel and Lugano - recorded between 2018 and 2022 - are juxtaposed and recombined on an absorbing recording that features Norwegian drummer Thomas Stronen solo and in a series of duets. With such partners as Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland and Jorge Rossy, the musical frame of reference is very broad. Stronen offers a project that implies new threads of connectivity, new creative relationships. Produced by Manfred Eicher.

[GA Russell]

2024 Year in Review

Throughout 2024, ECM issued 23 new releases and reissued eight albums as part of its Luminessence audiophile vinyl series. In early 2025, ECM will release new recordings by Benjamin Lackner, François Couturier, Dominique Pifarély, Yuval Cohen Quartet, Mathias Eick, and Julia Hülsmann Quartet.

Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje Touch of Time January 26, 2024

"Trumpeter Arve Henriksen and pianist Harmen Fraanje together create a mood so deep and encompassing that you can lose yourself in it. You can think and feel along with them and dream the same dreams." — Stereophile     "Hearing Touch of Time is like being invited into a stranger’s lucid dream, enveloped with beauty." — The Big Takeover

Matthieu Bordenave The Blue Land January 26, 2024

"Whether on tenor or soprano, Matthieu Bordenave favors a plush tone and a winding, almost slithering technique that sounds like it’s searching for the heart of a piece." — The Big Takeover   "Spacious, moody, meditative, and immediate, the saxophonist and his compositions spin delicate, cognitive webs, leaving Moret, Weber and Maddren to create at will a way around a moving center." — All About Jazz

Vijay Iyer Compassion February 2, 2024

"The pianist’s group improvises with entrancing dynamism. This second offering from Mr. Iyer’s trio invests yet further in the qualities that make the ensemble singular, not least a shared fascination with nuances of rhythmic expression on a communal sense of flow. It revels in dynamics that are calibrated with great care and […] achieve startling force." — The Wall Street Journal   Their mature group invention is heightened by their playing together live. They bring a fresh, intensely interactive, seemingly time-elasticizing approach to the jazz piano trio that is at once bracingly kinetic, intimate, and lyrical. — AllMusic

John Surman, Rob Luft, Rob Waring, Thomas Strønen Words Unspoken February 16, 2024

"Words Unspoken erases boundaries between styles and genres, and this quartet's members listen so closely, they don't overshadow or step on one another -- they're always conscious of their individual places inside the group. The control, drama, and intimacy Surman supplies on this album sets it alongside his best recordings on the shelf." — AllMusic   "Alternating between soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone, and bass clarinet, Surman stays in the foreground for most of the record, but rather than sit back and comp, Waring and Lugt help create a three-way musical conversation while Strønen’s minimalistic approach behind the kit leaves everyone plenty of breathing room." — The Absolute Sound

Fred Hersch Silent, Listening April 19, 2024

“While Hersch is more closely associated with his straight-ahead interpretations of classic American Songbook standards, here he displays just how painterly and surprisingly avant-garde his tastes lean. There's a sense on Silent, Listening that Hersch is composing in the moment, balancing the artful melodicism he is known for with sustained moments of freely improvised flights of fancy.” — AllMusic    “He explores the highest and lowest octaves, and strums inside the piano. With a light touch and disdain for anything showy, he plays single notes in meticulous extended sequences. There are also clusters that splash, splay and sashay, and an occasional forte chord for startling contrast.”  — Associated Press

Oded Tzur My Prophet June 7, 2024

"Much like listening to late period John Coltrane or modern-day Charles Lloyd, listening to Oded Tzur is akin to a spiritual experience. The tenor saxophonist's fifth album, My Prophet, is his most affecting yet. Simultaneously corporeal and metaphysical, soulful and cerebral." — All About Jazz   "Gorgeous, inviting, yet ever so slightly strange, My Prophet takes Tzur’s extraordinary vision to the next level."  — The Big Takeover

Tomasz Stanko Quartet September Night June 21, 2024

"Stanko is in fine form, his brooding film-noir tone the color of the slate-blue album cover. He’s often muted without a mute, which makes his occasional squalls especially startling. There’s a sense of liberation to his tremulous trills, staccato stabs and smeary slides up and down the scale that fill in the gaps between notes." — Associated Press   "[Stanko is] the master of the pregnant pause. He’s not so much about swing — he excels in a different kind of drama. He will frequently make a bold statement on his unmuted horn, and then wait to see what happens. On even the most free pieces, he is unflurried, at peace with his own slightly mysterious lyricism. His phrases are often paradoxical — forthright yet somehow elusive." — The Arts Fuse

Norma Winstone, Kit Downes Outpost of Dreams July 5, 2024

"Winstone and Downes have assembled a unique repertoire of interconnected songs. The singer remains a marvelous storyteller; Winstone’s clear and seductive voice paces time seductively. She improvises wordlessly — less here than on other discs. No matter. She leaves us time to absorb each tale, to experience her perhaps depressing view of eternity alongside her careful celebration of the natural world as it is in the present." — The Arts Fuse   "Winstone and Downes have grappled with the dark turbulence of lived experience, shaping it into something that has the hard ring of truth without the grimness that usually comes with it. Instead, we’re left with an appreciation for the blessings and tribulations of existence and a determination to see things through." — Spectrum Culture

Jordina Millà, Barry Guy Live in Munich July 5, 2024

"Live in Munich is a spiky, exhilarating live-action portrait of two artists pushing limits: their own and their listeners. Take them up on the challenge." — A Closer Listen   "There is no deeper connection to artistic fundamentals than music created in the moment, and there’s no better way to imbibe its grandiose intimacies than a beautifully recorded live concert. Given just the right circumstances, the music crystalizes with the full-bore energy and ruminative introspection of the room and all those in it, like the forces guiding this 2022 concert performance from pianist Jordina Milla and bassist Barry Guy along its blazing trails and winding paths toward discovery and resolution." — Point of Departure

Giovanni Guidi, James Brandon Lewis, Thomas Morgan, João Lobo A New Day July 12, 2024

"Pianist Giovanni Guidi takes his regular trio of bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer João Lobo in a fresh direction with his latest album A New Day. While never shy when it comes to spontaneity, the threesome finds a new kick coming from guest James Brandon Lewis." — The Big Takeover   "On A New Day, Lewis becomes an essential contributor to Guidi's world. His power is present but sublimated. It radiates heat like an underground fire." — Stereophile   "Guidi and his peers find freedom within open structures and rubato dramatization in a record replete with intimacy and restraint. Although not transcending at all times, Guidi proves to have a singular voice, being a legitimate representative of the European jazz sphere." — Jazz Trail

Lucian Ban, Mat Maneri Transylvanian Dance August 30, 2024

"Overall, emotions veer towards the sombre, and viola and piano are engagingly close-knit. Maneri's mid-range slurs and upper-register sustains add mystery to Ban's confident harmonic touch and a sense of foreboding when voicings become dense." — Financial Times   "The duo treats [Bartok's] work on each piece with admiration and appreciation but does not feel bound to his written notes. Songs are opened up for moments of improvisatory ingenuity, which allow for the incorporation of not only elements from their backgrounds in jazz and free music but also their shared interest in folk music from around the globe." — PostGenre

Alice Zawadzki, Fred Thomas, Misha Mullov-Abbado  Za Górami September 13, 2024

"The trio on Za Górami jitters with energy—overall contained but bursting forth here and there as the album progresses. A mysterioso lingers over the songs brought to life like ghosts dancing for a necromancer. The small group collaborates closely on each track." — All About Jazz     "Zawadzki’s voice adapts in “Nani Nani,” dripping with affectation through vibrato and melismatic ornamentation, the trio’s suspended, cadenza-like motion a gentle vortex in a warm sea. “Za Gorami,” the title track, is announced boldly in Polish by Zawadzki, her voice charged with urgency while Mullov-Abbado and Thomas (whose partially prepared piano sounds like tuned gongs) drive a descending repeated figure, dissipating into languid contemplation as Zawadzki warms to passionate pleading, resolving in poetic conclusion. Perhaps this track best sums up the intimate beauty and expansive mystery of this exquisite trio." — DownBeat

Florian Weber Imaginary Cycle September 13, 2024

"Idiosyncratic, large-scale and in its fundamental disposition one of a kind, Florian Weber’s Imaginary Cycle, conceived for the unique instrumentation of brass ensemble and piano, is a hybrid of multiple musical languages that seamlessly blends the harmonious with the oblique." — Different Noises   "This is an awe-inspiring recording from Weber that is magisterial in concept and execution. The breadth of the writing for lower register brass instruments is full of life and movement that sweeps Weber’s four suites, along with a prologue and epilogue that bookend the album, in an absorbing performance." — Jazz Views

Trygve Seim, Frode Haltli Our Time September 13, 2024

"Effortlessly navigating between folk-inspired melodies and open drift, the Norwegian duo of saxophonist Trygve Seim and accordionist Frode Haltli returns with Our Time, their second collaborative release following their 2008 debut Yeraz. The duo exhibits a sharp-eared empathy for diverse, world-inspired sounds, infusing each track with unique energy and churning detail, all while maintaining their characteristically lyrical approach." — Jazz Trail   "On Our Time Trygve and Frode exchange contrapuntal glances, lyrical swells and textural explorations with grace, eloquence and utmost nuance, presenting a program of originals, improvisations and evocative re-castings of traditional folk songs from Ukraine and North India." — Different Noises

Louis Sclavis, Benjamin Moussay Unfolding September 13, 2024

"In a program of originals – two-thirds from the pianist’s pen, the remaining third by the clarinetist – the French duo dreams up a world of chamber conversations that juxtaposes lyrical contemplation with whimsical inventiveness in a joyous, concentrated collaboration.Thoughtfully, the duo envelopes delicate themes in warm improvisations that never rush, but patiently explore the written material with rare creativity and in fluid dialogues." — Different Noises   "Aptly titled, this lovely duo album from Sclavis and Moussay does indeed gently unfold through a series of pieces that allow for spontaneity within the framework of the compositions." — Jazz Views

Tord Gustavsen Trio Seeing October 4, 2024

"Even at a sparse forty-four minutes, Seeing is a timeless listen, making it hard to reckon and equally foolish to say that Seeing may very well be Gustavsen and company's high-water mark at this particular point in our troubled timeline. But it may very well be. An efficiency of shape the pianist describes might be true for the trio and the venerable Manfred Eicher, but for listeners, those shapes morph to moments and moments can be shaped any way. This moment is shaped by Seeing." — All About Jazz   "One feels lighter when losing ourselves in the melodies, chords, and rhythms of Seeing, a work filled with outstanding musicianship, restraint, and openness."  — Jazz Trail

Avishai Cohen, Yonathan Avishai, Barak Mori, Ziv Ravitz | Ashes to Gold | October 11, 2024

"Trumpeter Avishai Cohen embodies the emotions of living through war, moving from anger to anguish, and finally hope, on his sixth ECM album, 2024's Ashes to Gold." — AllMusic   "A multi-part suite, “Ashes to Gold” feels more painterly than previous Cohen albums. Relying less on improvisation than on focused group interplay, the band – Cohen on trumpet, flugelhorn, and flute, Yonathan Avishai on piano, Barak Mori on bass, Ziv Ravitz on drums – pours a rollercoaster of emotions into the suite: rage, terror, disappointment, melancholy, a deep desire for peace." — The Big Takeover

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian The Old Country November 8, 2024

"Here are the inspired variations, the technique under control, the avoidance of cliches, the teeming ideas, the adroit harmonies, the intense concentration and the graceful treatment of wonderful themes." — All About Jazz   "The Old Country is a more than worthy addition to Jarrett’s sterling catalog. Piano trio music doesn’t get any better than this."  — Glide Magazine   "In Jarrett’s hands, these old standbys take on new life, partly due to his ability to spin fresh ideas out of well-worn melodies, and partly because this one-night-only rhythm section pushes him in directions he didn’t usually follow in the contexts in which he usually played with these guys." — The Big Takeover

Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret, Julian Sartorius Samares November 15, 2024

"Exemplifying yet again the trio's integral drive for forward motion Samares' namesake track is total group-think; a giant leap forward in the open, communicative abilities of man and musician." — All About Jazz   On Samares, Swiss pianist Colin Vallon leads his trio—rounded out by Patrice Moret on double bass and Julian Sartorius on drums—into a lush, contemplative soundscape that feels both intimate and expansive. The album unfolds like a series of nature-inspired vignettes, each track carefully balancing melody and texture. — Jazz Sketches

Stephan Micus To the Rising Moon November 15, 2024

"It features instruments from Colombia, India, Xinjiang (China), Bavaria, Cambodia, Egypt and Borneo, which have never before been combined in one composition. People often call themselves a multi-instrumentalist when they play three or four instruments, but Micus plays eight on this album alone and countless more since his first ECM album, Implosions, in 1977." — Different Noises   "True to form, Micus blends a stunning array of global instruments—ranging from the Colombian tiple to the South Asian dilruba—creating a soundscape that is as immersive as it is intricate." — Jazz Sketches

Jakob Bro, Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Jason Moran, Thomas Morgan and Andrew Cyrille Taking Turns November 29, 2024

Taking Turns, recorded in New York’s Avatar Studio a decade ago, finds Danish guitarist Jakob Bro joined by a multi-generational cast of improvisers, highly distinctive players all. Lee Konitz, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Frisell, Jason Moran and Thomas Morgan lend their energies to a session that bypasses conventions of the “all-star” band and puts the emphasis on teamwork. Bro’s space-conscious music encourages fresh responses: an atmospheric hint, or a fragment of gentle melody, opening up new trails to explore. “My compositions are about catching a glimpse of a feeling, sketching it down and then unfolding it as we record,” said Bro at the time.

Thomas Strønen, Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland, Jorge Rossy Relations November 29, 2024

Musical messages from Oslo, New York, Basel and Lugano – recorded between 2018 and 2002 – are juxtaposed and recombined on an absorbing recording that features Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen solo and in a series of duets . With such partners as Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland and Jorge Rossy, the musical frame of reference is very broad. Elements from Langeland’s’s archaic-sounding folk to Potter’s post-Coltrane saxophone and Taborn’s whirlwind modernist piano each find their place in a project that implies new threads of connectivity, new creative relationships. The album was completed and mixed by Strønen and producer Manfred Eicher at Bavaria Musikstudios in Munich in February 2023.

Arild Andersen Landloper November 29, 2024

Arild Andersen, one of jazz’s most widely acclaimed bassists, presents his first solo album. Characteristically broad in its musical scope and creative range, Landloper was recorded primarily at Oslo’s Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene (with one piece recorded at Arild’s home). Choice of repertoire in this recital reflects on Arild’s artistic journey, and, alongside Andersen originals (“Dreamhorse,” “Mira,” “Landloper”), we find Norwegian traditional music (“Old Stev”), a romantic jazz standard (“A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square”), and new light cast upon free jazz classics (Albert Ayler’s “Ghosts," Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman,” Charlie Haden’s “Song for Che”). Andersen’s performances combine his masterful bass playing with real-time creation of electronic loops that bring an atmospheric dimension to solo playing and fresh opportunities for interaction.

2024 Luminessence Vinyl Reissues

Keith Jarrett/Jan Garbarek Luminessence March 1, 2024

Mysterious, dramatic and alluring, Luminessence comes from a peak period in the creative association between Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek, recorded in 1974, immediately after their vibrant Belonging album. Here, Jarrett creates shimmering orchestral frameworks to spur Garbarek to some of his most concentrated, impassioned and expressive playing. “The melodies that Jarrett writes sound like Garbarek improvisations, so great is the rapport between the two men,” wrote Ian Carr in his Keith Jarrett biography, while DownBeat, in a five-star review, observed that “probing deep into his own personal musical cosmos, Jarrett has brought back a chilling and singular achievement that promises to stand as a landmark in the musical landscape of the '70s," Produced by Manfred Eicher, the album that gives the Luminessence audiophile edition its name is augmented with new liner notes providing historical context.

Jan Garbarek Afric Pepperbird March 1, 2024

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 fledgling ECM label. It was the start of a lifelong association with each of the musicians, whose influence was soon to reach far beyond the borders of their homeland. In extended passages on Afric Pepperbird, with Christensen and Andersen stretching out, it’s quite often Rypdal effectively holding the centre with taut chords. Everybody is roaring here, with Garbarek deep into his free jazz vocabulary.

Azimuth Azimuth March 29, 2024

Recorded in 1977 and now reissued in ECM’s audiophile Luminessence vinyl series, the debut album of the Azimuth trio was truly ahead of its time. Formed by adding Canadian- born trumpeter Kenny Wheeler to the British duo of pianist John Taylor and vocalist Norma Winstone, the group’s futuristic musical palette embraced hypnotic, minimalistic pulse patterns, otherworldly synthesizer sounds, songs, collective improvisation and solo flights. In recent seasons, the number of listeners under Azimuth’s sway has grown exponentially, as the music has adapted itself to new contexts. And the vast international audience that has heard fragments of Azimuth’s “The Tunnel” as part of a major rap hit in 2023 can now discover the original in its pristine form, still magical after all these years – as is the whole album. Manfred Eicher, this new edition with gatefold sleeve adds liner notes detailing Azimuth’s story.

John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette Gateway May 31, 2024

With “daring and visionary spirit”, to quote a DownBeat review from the year of this album’s release, master improvisers John Abercrombie, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette forged a unique vision of trio interplay on their first joint effort under the Gateway moniker. The trio tackles Holland and DeJohnette originals with a visionary idea of what three-way conversations in jazz could sound like. As The Observer remarked in an article of the time, “the telepathic ensemble playing and perfect execution make it difficult to believe that this music is almost completely improvised." The players’ respectively unique instrumental signatures had already fully crystallized here, hinting at the music to come.     The Luminessence edition of the album arrives in a tip-on gatefold, complete with previously unseen archival photos and new liner notes by Wilco’s Nels Cline.

Kenny Wheeler, Lee Konitz, Dave Holland, Bill Frisell Angel Song May 31, 2024

“Destined to go down in history as a jazz classic” was the verdict with which The Guardian greeted this album on its release in 1997, saying, “Wheeler’s compositions and four of the world’s greatest improvisers make for a tranquil set that rewards with every listening. This is beautiful, golden music.” Angel Song is among the apexes of the label’s catalogue, uniting four master-improvisers – each with a unique artistic identity – in an intimate, drummer-less quartet session. Kenny Wheeler is the composer of the nine hauntingly lyrical chamber-elaborations and endows them with his singular timbre on flugelhorn and trumpet in expressive melodic exchanges with alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. Dave Holland’s bass-foundation is as compelling as ever, giving Bill Frisell all the freedom for harmony-encompassing improvisation. The verdict of The Times was equally jubilant: “This is a stirringly beautiful album: Holland’s lithe dependability providing the anchor for the dignified sonorousness of Konitz, the flickering grace of Frisell and the plangent tenderness of Wheeler himself.”

Pat Metheny Bright Size Life August 9, 2024

Pat Metheny had debuted at ECM as a member of Gary Burton’s band on the album Ring in 1974, but Bright Size Life, his first studio recording as a leader, was the album that decisively put him on the map as a bright new force, with something fresh to say in the context of contemporary jazz. Recorded in Ludwigsburg in December 1975, and produced by Manfred Eicher, the album featured Metheny’s regular touring band of the day, with Bob Moses on drums and the virtuosic but then largely unknown Jaco Pastorius on bass guitar.

Annette Peacock An Acrobat’s Heart October 25, 2024

A ravishingly beautiful album by one of the most mysterious, elusive and beguiling figures on the fringes of jazz. An Acrobat’s Heart features the unique vocals and piano playing of singer-songwriter Annette Peacock, performing her own compositions with the acclaimed Cikada String Quartet. If you like An Acrobat’s Heat, then you’d probably like: Marilyn Crispell's Nothing Ever Was, Anyway, Paul Bley's Paul Bley with Gary Peacock, Arild Andersen's Hyperborean, Bent Sørensen's Birds and Bells Norma Winstone's Somewhere Called Home.

Marilyn Crispell, Gary Peacock and Paul Motian Amaryllis October 25, 2024

Return of the great American jazz trio that delivered the poll-topping Nothing Ever Was, Anyway in 1997. Material heard on Amaryllis is by turns thoughtful, touching, joyous and viscerally exciting. Some of the songs are well known – almost classics of new jazz – including Crispell’s "Rounds", Peacock’s "Requiem" and "December Wings, Motian’s "Conception Vessel". There are also a number of startlingly effective free improvised ballads. As leader Marilyn Crispell says, "There’s a great depth of communication, a rare delicacy. " Interaction between the musicians is exceptional.

For more information on ECM, please visit: ECMRecords.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter