Colin Vallon Trio Rruga (2011)

“Rruga”, meaning ‘path’, ‘road’ or ‘journey’ in Albanian, is the evocative title of the ECM debut by the trio of pianist Colin Vallon, bassist Patrice Moret and drummer Samuel Rohrer. After shared musical experiences on the Swiss jazz scene, they began their trio journey five years ago, and have grown into one of Europe’s most promising bands, shaping a rugged and individual music, inspired by songs and singers, and by the music of the Caucasus region as well as by the jazz tradition. Challenging conventions of the modern jazz piano trio, the instrumentalists meet on equal terms as the music is created, arranged and developed collective.

Le Vent, recorded in April 2013 at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio, is the second ECM album from the Colin Vallon Trio. Like the wind celebrated in its title track, the group has a subtle, insinuating power. Emerging from a still and silent place, its music can breathe gently, or steadily build pressure until attaining an eruptive forcefulness. This combining of poetic compression and quiet relentlessness was evident on the ECM debut Rruga three years ago, but with leader Vallon now writing almost all of the repertoire (although opening tune “Juuichi” is by Patrice Moret), and new drummer Julian Sartorius detailing its floating rhythms, the Swiss trio has entered a brave new space where touch and inflection are decisively more important than soloistic gesture.

In the winter of 2012/13, the Haus der Kunst in Munich – one of Europe’s most important museums for contemporary art – hosted the exhibition ECM – A Cultural Archaeology. The goal of curators Okwui Enwezor and Markus Müller was to show the range of the label’s artistic endeavours in music, graphic art, and photography and its creative interchanges with film, theatre and literature. For this exhibition, Manfred Eicher and Steve Lake created this box-set accentuating directions in ECM's rich musical history. Many themes and streams are touched upon here including the range of composition in the New Series, music for and from films, imaginative historical reconstructions, trans-cultural music, ambient minimalism, and jazz and improvisation of many hues, in a collection with a playing time of more than seven hours.