Results for "ECM Records"

John Surman: Invisible Threads

by Mario Calvitti
May 17, 2018

Dopo oltre 50 anni di attività professionale, il sassofonista britannico John Surman è ancora in grado di sorprenderci. Lo fa con il suo nuovo lavoro, pubblicato sempre dalla ECM, a 6 anni di distanza dal precedente Saltash Bells. Questo Invisible Threads è nato quasi per caso, da un incontro fortuito del sassofonista con la musica brasiliana ...

Jakob Bro: Returnings

by Mark Sullivan
May 13, 2018

Danish guitarist Jakob Bro reunites with double bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Jon Christensen--the trio that recorded his ECM debut Gefion (ECM, 2015)--and adds veteran ECM stalwart trumpeter/flugelhornist Palle Mikkelborg to the mix. Usually adding a horn would make a group sound brasher, but most of the time Mikkelborg seems to have brought out Bro's introspective, ...

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin at World Cafe Live

by Geno Thackara
May 11, 2018

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin World Cafe Live Philadelphia, PA May 8, 2018 Of the oddest sights Philadelphia's art scene might offer on any given Tuesday night, a stern-faced figure in samurai hatama whacking a piano with a mallet should probably be in the top five. (Unless there's something like the Fringe Festival ...

Stephan Micus: Inland Sea

by Mario Calvitti
May 11, 2018

Giunto al suo ventiduesimo titolo per la ECM (che ha pubblicato la quasi totalità della sua discografia), a due anni di distanza dal precedente Nomad Songs, il polistrumentista tedesco Stephan Micus prosegue a tappe regolari il suo viaggio attraverso una geografia musicale immaginaria ma concreta, espressione di una world music senza indicazione di tempo e di ...

Maciej Obara: Unloved

by Mario Calvitti
May 9, 2018

Al suo esordio su etichetta ECM, l'altosassofonista polacco Maciej Obara, classe 1981, è in realtà al suo nono disco da titolare, e al quarto (ma primo realizzato in studio) con il quartetto di cui è leader, completato dal connazionale pianista Dominic Wania (conosciuto quando entrambi militavano nel gruppo del trombettista Tomasz Stanko) e da una sezione ...

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin: Awase

by Mike Jurkovic
May 7, 2018

After “Modul 60," the reflective and tranquil opener to Awase, from pianist Nik Bärtsch's groove-metric quartet Ronin, “Modul 58" comes at you with such an insistence and power that it leaves you, after its persistent eighteen minutes, catching your breath, marveling at how you went from zero to mach 10 in the blink of an eye. ...

Third Reel

A collaborative group brimming with creative potential, Third Reel consists of reed multi-instrumentalist Nicolas Masson, guitarist Roberto Pianca and drummer Emanuele Maniscalco, three committed improvisers and gifted writers, each with a distinct compositional signature. The contrasts, and a shared sensitivity for space, shape the group’s sonic identity. Each member of this Swiss-Italian trio is a bandleader is his own right but the cooperative Third Reel is a priority for all of them. Conceived as a trio without bass from the outset – “it means more responsibility for each player, as well as more risk-taking” – Third Reel went through various drummers until Pianca brought along Emanuele Maniscalco in 2010 (drummer and guitarist had previously collaborated in the band Food Chain).

Kristjan Randalu: Absence

by Mike Jurkovic
April 27, 2018

With a gathering, rubato flurry, Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu, a Chick Corea-inspired student of the late, virtuosic and highly lyrical British pianist John Taylor and his mischievous compatriot Django Bates, begins “Forecast" in whirling descent, before the quiet storm of guitarist Ben Monder and drummer Marku Ounaskari take the weather out to sea, where Randalu threatens ...

Nik Bärtsch: Possibility in Paradox

by Geno Thackara
April 24, 2018

Like the master-less samurai his primary band is named for, Nik Bärtsch forges a path and follows a code all his own. The pianist's music is best described by his own key phrases “ritual groove music" and “Zen funk," merging Eastern minimalist simplicity and patient trance with the interplay and communal aspect of jazz. It makes ...

Norma Winstone: Descansado - Songs For Films

by John Ephland
April 19, 2018

Norma Winstone has had her current trio since 2001, long enough to have released five albums (four for ECM). Descansado, a celebration of cinema through the language of music, is that fourth CD, and it's a winner from start to finish. The album's title derives from a Armando Trovajoli composition, used in Italian director Vittorio De ...