Results for "ECM Records"

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, Sarah-Jane Summers, 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, ...

Marcin Wasilewski Trio & Joe Lovano: Arctic Riff

by Mike Jurkovic
June 22, 2020

Like standing before a frozen lake as it becomes a palette for the morning sun, “Glimmer of Hope" ripens swiftly, deftly into an illuminating, direly-needed respite from the mourning that has besieged listeners. Ecstatically, it is just the preface to Arctic Riff's expansive beauty. As if conjured from mist, pianist Marcin Wasilewski's contented, yet ...

John Scofield: Swallow Tales

by Ian Patterson
June 16, 2020

It was Gary Burton who brought Steve Swallow--with electric bass in tow--into the teaching ranks of the Berklee College of Music in the early 1970s. Burton had already introduced Swallow's songs to the students, one of whom, a fresh-faced John Scofield, would go on to play and record with both men. Scofield and Swallow's musical partnership ...

Wolfgang Muthspiel: Angular Blues

by Mike Jurkovic
April 11, 2020

So much of Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel's music materializes before you like Mr. Spock and company on Star Trek. The music beamed in always airy and on the verge of evaporation. But before it does either manifest or vanish it leads you along a slippery slope, through brave structures where only the guitarist knows where the ...

All About Jazz Contributor Tyran Grillo's book Between Sound and Space: An ECM Records Primer, Available Now

March 20, 2020

A printed compilation of some of ECM’s finest albums to be released over its 50-year history, recorded by musicians from the USA, Norway, Brazil, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, and many other countries. As an independent publisher, we are very happy to present our third English-language book and the first music book in our catalog: Between Sound and ...

Wolfgang Muthspiel: Angular Blues

by Mark Sullivan
March 18, 2020

Austrian jazz guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel's previous two ECM albums have been quintets: Where The River Goes (ECM, 2018) and Rising Grace (ECM, 2016). This trio date is a call back to his ECM leader debut, Driftwood (ECM, 2014), with Brian Blade returning on drums but Scott Colley replacing Larry Grenadier on double bass. The music is ...