Results for "ECM Records"

Elina Duni / Rob Luft: Lost Ships

by Chris May
December 4, 2020

Released just in time to make the Best Albums of 2020 lists, the Albanian-Swiss singer Elina Duni and the British guitarist Rob Luft's Lost Ships is an exquisitely beautiful, emotionally complex, words and music masterpiece from two of the most distinctive talents on the European scene. Passionate and grave, serene and desolate, it is a kind ...

Keith Jarrett: Budapest Concert

by Mike Jurkovic
November 24, 2020

Burdened as it is by the news that, due to two strokes suffered in 2018, Keith Jarrett's glorious art of live composition is all but over, Budapest Concert has some serious heavy lifting to do. Triumphant and transcendent, it rises to the grand occasion and leaves the listener marveling at how any artist, of any age, ...

Keith Jarrett: Budapest Concert

by Karl Ackermann
November 21, 2020

In October 2020 Keith Jarrett told the New York Times, “I don't know what my future is supposed to be." In that interview, he revealed what had been rumored for some time. A 2018 stroke—one of two that he had suffered—had left him unable to walk and, without the use of his left hand, perhaps permanently. ...

Jon Balke

Born: June 7, 1955

Jon Balke was born in Furnes, Norway, and has been a professional musician since 1974. Balke has no formal education in music or composition and has mainly worked within the realm of improvised music. His main instrument has been the piano and this has lead, in time, to the use of electronic keyboards. He began composing for larger ensembles in 1982, first and foremost for Oslo 13, a 'small' big band, and has since composed works for the theatre and various chamber ensembles, in addition to big bands and jazz ensembles. Balke's activities in music have always been two-fold. On the one hand, there is a search for maximum spontaneity through the establishing of orchestras which are increasingly based on pure improvisation; a development that has culminated in his very successful trio Jøkleba with Audun Kleive and Per Jørgensen (keys, percussion, and trumpet)

Terje Rypdal: Conspiracy

by Mike Jurkovic
September 21, 2020

Given what we're going through hour after battered hour in summer 2020, any artistic endeavor entitled Conspiracy just might be the last thing you'd want to get involved with. But Terje Rypdal, a true master for reaching beyond troubled layers and into the beating heart, offers a conspiracy of open anticipation and expansive terrains. When was ...

Alessandro Sgobbio

Composer, pianist, producer Alessandro Sgobbio keeps expanding his personal vocabulary of compositions, improvisations and spiritual explorations throughout music. After earning Master Degrees at the Oslo Norwegian Music Academy and the Parma Music Conservatory, Alessandro Sgobbio has been voted one of the best new talents of the year at the “TopJazz” Italian Polls. He has released 15 albums as a leader / co-leader, performing across Europe, Scandinavia, UK, China and the USA as a soloist, duo with renowned artists Amal Murkus, Senny Camara, Michele Rabbia and Christophe Marguet – and also his quartets Silent Fires and Hitra

Nils Okland Band: Kjølvatn

by David Bruggink
July 2, 2020

A seasoned solo performer, sideman and leader, Nils Økland is a frequent ECM Records contributor capable of playing expressively across multiple styles. His hardanger fiddle and violin can range from poised and elegant—see Lysøen -Hommage à Ole Bull (2011), his collaboration with pianist Sigbjørn Apeland—to raucous, as on the Dirty Three-esque Lumen Drones (2014).

Tord Gustavsen Trio: The Other Side

by David Bruggink
July 1, 2020

In spiritual parlance, “the other side" often refers to a realm beyond death. Tord Gustavsen is no stranger to integrating music to religious practice, performing frequent “Musikkmeditasjon" concerts in Norwegian churches. It would be reductive, however, to describe his music in New Age terms. Gustavsen is a master composer and improviser, and The Other Side is ...

Tigran Hamasyan: Atmosphères

by David Bruggink
June 30, 2020

A cross-cultural collaboration between Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, guitarist Eivind Aarset, sound manipulator Jan Bang, and Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan, Atmosphères seems to be a quintessential ECM release in certain ways. It exhibits qualities that come readily to mind when imagining the ECM aesthetic: sonic minimalism, musical gestures with exquisite subtleness and thrilling, sometimes discordant, experimentation. ...

Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Joe Lovano: Arctic Riff

by Thomas Fletcher
June 28, 2020

The Marcin Wasilewski Trio is amongst the most evident and high-profile jazz groups that roam the Polish scene. Celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary playing together only last year, the ensemble is widely renowned for challenging the piano trio and broadening its sound. Having collaborated with luminary wind players such as Jan Garbarek, Arthur Blythe and John Surman, ...