Sebastian Rochford / Kit Downes
A Short Diary [ ECM / CD - released 20/Jan/2023 ] This "short diary (of loss)" as drummer Sebastian Rochford calls it is offered as "a sonic memory, created with love, out of need for comfort." The album is dedicated to Rochford's father, Aberdeen poet Gerard Rochford (1932-2019) and to his family.... |
Shai Maestro
Human [ ECM / CD - released 2/Apr/2021 ] In its review of pianist Shai Maestro's ECM leader debut The Dream Thief, All About Jazz spoke of "a searching lyrical atmosphere, emotional eloquence and communal virtuosity that serves the music." All of which also applies to Human, where Maestro's... |
Shankar
Song For Everyone [ ECM Touchstones / CD - released 24/Oct/2008 ] Recorded September 1984. Over terrifically propulsive percussion by Zakir Hussain and Trilok Gurtu, Shankar, on electric double violin, trades solos and shares thrilling unisons with Jan Garbarek. An immediately appealing East/West collaboration. |
Stephan Micus
Winter's End [ ECM / CD - released 11/Jun/2021 ] Stephan Micus is a one-man universe of sound. He collects and studies instruments from around the world and creates his own musical journeys with them. This is his 24th solo album for ECM created in his studio with many recordings and overdubs. The... |
Steve Tibbetts
Hellbound Train [ ECM / 2 CD - released 26/Aug/2022 ] Hellbound Train is a double-album retrospective from Steve Tibbetts with music selected by the US guitarist from 40 years of recordings on ECM. Neatly divided into electric and acoustic chapters, the anthology juxtaposes pieces originally featured on... |
Terje Rypdal
Conspiracy (LP) [ ECM / LP - released 12/Feb/2021 ] A new ECM studio album and a programme of new music from Terje Rypdal is cause for celebration. On Conspiracy the great Norwegian guitarist seems to reconnect with the wild inspiration that fuelled such early masterpieces as Whenever I Seem To Be Far... |
KOMITAS / HAMASYAN / HENRIKSEN / AARSET / BANG
Atmosphères Tigran Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset, Jan Bang [ ECM / 2 CD - released 26/Aug/2016 ] This far-reaching double album, recorded and mixed in three days in Lugano, introduces a new group with Tigran Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang. The Norwegians had played in diverse configurations on ECM - Jan Bang on Eivind... |
Tord Gustavsen Ensemble
Restored Returned [ ECM Records / CD - released 14/Dec/2009 ] After a trilogy of highly successful trio albums, Tord Gustavsen branches off in new directions. Inside the ensemble, duo and trio interaction unfolds, taking off from the clear melodic language of Gustavsen's songwriting. |
Tord Gustavsen Quartet
Extended Circle [ ECM / CD - released 20/Mar/2014 ] The sixth ECM album from Tord Gustavsen, recorded in Oslo in June 2013, quietly but most assuredly takes the Norwegian pianist's music to the next stage of its development. Gustavsen's quartet with Tore Brunborg, Mats Eilertsen and long-term... |
Tord Gustavsen Quartet
The Well [ ECM / CD - released 12/Mar/2012 ] Gently but effectively propelled by his group, Gustavsen's gospel-tinged, unhurried piano playing displays a characteristic warmth and tenderness. |
Tord Gustavsen Trio
Changing Places [ ECM Records / CD - released 10/Dec/2003 ] The songs Gustavsen writes sound like standards-in-the-making - lyrical, immediately memorable songs, songs of an appealing freshness, yet sophisticated in their involvement with the melodic line. |
Tord Gustavsen Trio
Opening (LP) [ ECM / LP - released 18/Nov/2022 ] On the album Opening, Tord Gustavsen reveals a fresh angle to his particularly unique trio investigations into Scandinavian folk hymns, gospel, chorale and jazz, as he introduces a different voice on bass. With a new fellow-traveller on board and... |
Tord Gustavsen Trio
The Other Side (LP) [ ECM / LP - released 31/Aug/2018 ] "This is the chill-out as a state of grace, and it can go as deep as you like. Sublime," wrote the Independent on Sunday of the Gustavsen's trio's Being There, released in 2007. Over the last decade Tord has explored other ensemble forms and formats,... |
Tord Gustavsen Trio
What Was Said (2LP) [ ECM / 2 LP - released 12/Feb/2016 ] What Was Said brings new colours to Tord Gustavsen's musical palette. His new project introduces the entrancing German-Afghan vocalist Simin Tander, and builds upon the subtle understanding of his long musical association with drummer Jarle... |
GIYA KANCHELI
Kancheli: Themes From the Songbook Vida Mikneviciute (soprano), Magdalena Ceple (cello), Andrei Pushkarev (vibraphone), Kremerata Baltica, Gidon Kremer [ ECM New Series / 2 CD - released 19/Jan/2024 ] "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 album Songs of Fate. Together with his... |
Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey
Uneasy (LP) [ ECM / 2 LP - released 9/Apr/2021 ] Vijay Iyer presents a powerful new trio, in which he is joined by two key figures in creative music, Tyshawn Sorey and Linda May Han Oh. "We have an energy together that is very distinct. It has a different kind of propulsion, a different impulse and... |
Vijay Iyer Sextet
Far From Over [ ECM CD / CD - released 25/Aug/2017 ] Keyboardist-composer Vijay Iyer's energized sequence of ECM releases has garnered copious international praise. Yet his fifth for the label since 2014 Far From Over, featuring his dynamically commanding sextet finds Iyer reaching a new peak,... |
Vijay Iyer Sextet
Far From Over (2LP) [ ECM / 2 LP - released 20/Oct/2017 ] Keyboardist-composer Vijay Iyer's energized sequence of ECM releases has garnered copious international praise. Yet his fifth for the label since 2014 - Far From Over, featuring his dynamically commanding sextet - finds Iyer reaching a new peak,... |
Vijay Iyer Trio
Break Stuff (LP) [ ECM / 2 LP - released 13/Mar/2015 ] "Break Stuff" is what happens after formal elements have been addressed. Vijay Iyer calls the break "a span of time in which to act. It's the basis for breakdowns, breakbeats, and break dancing... it can be the moment when everything comes to life."... |
HENRIK ØDEGAARD
Music By Henrik Ødegaard Vox Clamantis, Jaan-Eik Tulve (conductor) [ ECM New Series / CD - released 11/Aug/2023 ] On this newest endeavour, the Vox Clamantis choir, under the direction of Jaan-Eik Tulve, turns its attention towards Norwegian composer Henrik Ødegaard with a fine-drawn programme of liturgical choral music. In a subtle sleight of hand, Ødegaard's... |