Ur Musig (1993) Cyrill Schläpfer, Rees Gwerder, Jakob Alder, Jakob Duesel

With Uma Elmo, his fifth album as a leader for ECM, Danish guitarist Jakob Bro presents a new trio featuring Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy. Astonishingly, given the trio’s musical synergy, the first time these three musicians ever performed together was for the album’s sessions at the Swiss Radio studio in Lugano, with ECM founder Manfred Eicher producing. Uma Elmo reaffirms the observation about Bro’s work by London Jazz News that “there is no hurry to this music, but there is great depth.” Among the album’s highlights is opener “Reconstructing a Dream,” a darkly lyrical reverie.

Coupling powerful interpretations with path-breaking scholarship, the choir Contrapunctus presents music by the best-known composers as well as unfamiliar masterpieces. Directed by Owen Rees, a specialist in music of the 16th and 17 centuries, the group presents imaginative programmes revealing previously undiscovered musical treasures and throwing new light on familiar works.

Blue sound. Deep focus. Encompassment. This is what awaits the listener on this recording. Not compression or complex harmonies, rather the sound characterizes this recording. The tone, the sound here is carried by the spirit of internalization. The silence between the notes connects. The album is a search for simplicity and the essential, which looks inward and decelerates the listener.

Singer Fay Claassen and trumpeter/composer Jakob Helling first met in summer 2022 for concerts and recordings with the "Jakob Helling Concert Big Band". Now this delightful encounter continues with slightly fewer musicians on stage: the two have a fantastic band in tow, featuring Matthew Halpin (sax), Mátyás Bartha (piano), Ivar Roban Križić (bass) and Mario Gonzi (drums), some of the most exciting musicians in the German-speaking world. The programme ranges from some pieces from the brand new album "Nerds & Sweeties" by the "Jakob Helling Concert Big Band" to arrangements from the Great American Songbook, which Helling has breathed new life into, to the musicians' own compositions. You can look forward to an entertaining concert evening full of joyful playing and virtuosity paired with arrangements that stimulate both the brain and the heart.