Burkhardt Mole 2005

Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Maxine Sullivan, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Helen Merrill, Carmen McRae, Rosemary Clooney and many others.

Enrico Rava's restrained trumpet playing has been regarded in modern times as perfectly reflective of the ECM sound. It is wrapped in European classical music while displaying a lyricism that goes beyond strict tonality, reaching for a soulful arena that only he can claim in the post-Miles Davis era. The emerging pianist Stefano Bollani joins Rava and veteran drummer Paul Motian for this contrabass-less trio that uses a downplayed sonic footprint, at times ethereal, but mostly calmed, collected, and serenely furnished. The compositions are mainly Rava's in hushed tones, but occasionally a modern progressive, bop-influenced, or energetic presence creeps in. Bollani's style is romantically based and postmodern in derivation, while Motian is simply one of the most sensitive drummers ever, with ears that pick up on every shading or nuance, translating it into artful percussive brush strokes of light color…

This was a short lived, but essential band in the annals of what's called the Canterbury Sound, created by British progressive ensembles in the late sixties and early seventies. The band was formed when Robert Wyatt was ousted from Soft Machine, which he'd founded in the mid-sixties. "Matching Mole" was a wonderful debut that included tracks such as 'O Caroline', 'Signed Curtain' and 'Part of the Dance'. This edition has been newly remastered from the original master tapes and is expanded to include five previously unreleased studio session alternate takes, the single versions of 'O Caroline' and 'Signed Curtain', along with two BBC Radio One sessions from 1972…

This was a short lived, but essential band in the annals of what's called the Canterbury Sound, created by British progressive ensembles in the late sixties and early seventies. The band was formed when Robert Wyatt was ousted from Soft Machine, which he'd founded in the mid-sixties. "Matching Mole" was a wonderful debut that included tracks such as 'O Caroline', 'Signed Curtain' and 'Part of the Dance'. This edition has been newly remastered from the original master tapes and is expanded to include five previously unreleased studio session alternate takes, the single versions of 'O Caroline' and 'Signed Curtain', along with two BBC Radio One sessions from 1972…