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Miroslav Vitous
Journey's End [ ECM Touchstones / CD - released 17/May/2019 ] This quartet was the primary context for the Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous's creativity in the late 70s and early 80s. "Like Mingus, Vitous is a real leader from the bass, and the music is all the stronger for it" - Gramophone. With three excellent... |
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Nana Vasconcelos
Saudades [ ECM Records / CD - released 28/Apr/2023 ] Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos's Saudades album, recorded in March 1979, was the culmination of a dream for a musician who had long yearned to hear the berimbau in an orchestral context. This... |
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Near East Quartet
Near East Quartet [ ECM / CD - released 31/Aug/2018 ] The Near East Quartet has been a force in Korean music since 2010, juxtaposing elements of contemporary jazz and traditional Korean music with pure sound exploration to create new forms. Saxophonist/clarinettist Sungjae Son and guitarist Suwuk Chung... |
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Nicolas Masson, Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret, Lionel Friedli
Renaissance [ ECM / CD - released 14/Mar/2025 ] Nicolas Masson's acquaintance with his fellow quartet travelers Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret and Lionel Friedli goes back roughly two decades - in this time the players have developed an intimate musical bond, expressed purely and beautifully on... |
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Nik Bärtsch
Entendre [ ECM / CD - released 19/Mar/2021 ] A fascinating solo album from the Swiss pianist, composer and conceptualist best known as leader of the bands Ronin and Mobile, Entendre offers deeper insight into Nik Bärtch's musical thinking. As the album title implies Entendre is about hearing as... |
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Nik Bartsch's Mobile
Continuum [ ECM / CD - released 11/Mar/2016 ] After three studio albums: 'Stoa' (2006), 'Holon' (2008) and 'Lyria' (2010), plus the double-CD 'Live' (2012) with his electric band Ronin, Swiss keyboardist/composer Nik Bärtsch now presents a new recording with his original group Mobile. Mobile,... |
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Nik Bärtsch (piano)
Entendre (LP) [ ECM / 2 LP - released 23/Jul/2021 ] A fascinating solo album from the Swiss pianist, composer and conceptualist best known as leader of the bands Ronin and Mobile, Entendre offers deeper insight into Nik Bärtch's musical thinking. As the album title implies Entendre is about hearing as... |
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Nik Bärtsch's Ronin
Awase [ ECM / CD - released 4/May/2018 ] "Awase", a term from martial arts, means "moving together" in the sense of matching energies, a fitting metaphor for the dynamic precision, tessellated grooves and balletic minimalism of Nik Bärtsch's Ronin. Six years have passed since the last... |
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Nils Økland, Sigbjørn Apeland
Glimmer [ ECM / CD - released 11/Aug/2023 ] Violinist Nils Økland and keyboardist Sigbjørn Apeland, musical partners for thirty years, have long explored the interface of Norwegian traditional music and improvisation. Glimmer, an exceptionally beautiful and touching album, takes as its... |
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Andy Sheppard Quartet
Surrounded by Sea [ ECM Records / CD - released 1/May/2015 ] "Laidback and lyrical saxophonist Andy Sheppard's newest ECM project adds Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset to the Trio Libero lineup he shares with French bassist Michel Benita and Polar Bear drummer Seb Rochford, and uses the new member's ethereal... |
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The Norma Winstone Trio
Distances [ ECM Records / CD - released 10/Mar/2008 ] Norma Winstone, England's finest jazz vocalist, returns with a trio featuring German reedman Klaus Gesing and Italian pianist Glauco Venier. |
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GYORGY KURTAG / ANTONIN DVORAK
Kurtag: Six Moments Musicaux / Dvorak: String Quartet op.97 Parker Quartet, Kim Kashkashian [ ECM New Series / CD - released 12/Nov/2021 ] On their ECM New series debut, the Boston-based Parker Quartet, hailed by the Washington Post for "exceptional virtuosity and imaginative interpretation," play music of György Kurtág and are joined by violist Kim Kashkashian, one of the quarter's... |
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Pat Metheny Group
New Chautauqua [ ECM Records / CD - released 13/Nov/2008 ] Recorded August 1978. Metheny alone and, mostly, acoustic, playing folk-flavoured compositions. Pat viewed this as "an autobiographical album. It's got a lot to do with the American Midwest. It's very open and spacious." |
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GAVIN BRYARS
Bryars: The Fifth Century PRISM Quartet [ ECM New Series / CD - released 18/Nov/2016 ] "Is this a must-have? If you have any interest in contemporary music, it's certainly worth investigating. I, for one, am going to spend more time with the music of Gavin Bryars." Green Man Review |
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Savina Yannatou, Primavera en Salonico, Lamia Bedioui
Watersong [ ECM / CD - released 11/Apr/2025 ] Savina Yannatou's fifth ECM album revolves around the theme of water in its many manifestations. Water as a blessing and a curse. A life-sustaining source and a mortal threat in the elemental power of the storm. |
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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.... |
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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... |
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Sinikka Langeland
Wolf Rune [ ECM / CD - released 9/Apr/2021 ] Wolf Rune, a solo album, casts a new light on the highly personal idiom of Sinikka Langeland, kantele player and folk singer from Finnskogen, Norway's "Finnish forest". Sinikka integrates her own songs among folk hymns, shamanistic rune songs and... |
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Stefano Battaglia
Pelagos [ ECM / 2 CD - released 20/Oct/2017 ] Stefano Battaglia plays both piano and prepared piano (sometimes simultaneously) in a highly attractive double-album programme that includes his own compositions and spontaneous improvisations as well as two versions of the Arabic traditional song... |
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Stephan Micus
Thunder [ ECM / CD - released 20/Jan/2023 ] Stephan Micus is a unique musician and composer. He collects and studies instruments from all around the world and creates his own musical journeys with them. This is his 25th solo album for ECM and its sound is dominated by the four-metre long... |