I'm Joe Lovano

The group Der Rote Bereich was founded in 1992 in Nuremberg by guitarist Frank Möbus along with bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall, and almost immediately acquired cult status among jazz cognoscenti. The Rote Bereich has since gone through several transformations before settling in Berlin as a trio with drummer John Schröder.
The three have impressive credentials. Frank Möbus studied at the renowned Berklee School of Music in Boston. He has since played with the likes of Kenny Wheeler, Ray Anderson, Maria Joao, Herb Robertson, and drummer Jim Black. Rudi Mahall is one who has absorbed the music of Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, and Eric Dolphy. He plays with pianist Aki Takasi in a duo which concentrates on Dolphy’s music, and works with Alexander von Schlippenbach, Paul Lovens, and Conny Bauer…

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.