Ecm

Ingrid Karlen - Variations: Anton Webern, Galina Ustvolskaya, Valentin Silvestrov, Pierre Boulez (1997) {ECM New Series 1606}
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© 1997 ECM Records | ECM New Series 1606
Classical / Modern Classical / Contemporary Classical

Swiss pianist Ingrid Karlen makes her ECM debut with Variations, of which the program is as provocative as the title is vague. Beyond variations in the traditional sense, these are, rather, mise-en-abymes of abstractions. Or so they might at first aural glance seem, for within these sometimes troubling clusters of false starts breathes a unity at once organic and contrived. Anton Webern’s Variations for Piano, op. 27 (1935/36) is the primary example, for the only variations they seem to engender stem from that which cannot be notated. These pieces behave as might a solo violin sonata, jumping fluidly and bow-like through their ephemeral 12-tone links. They are the anti-motif, a stretch of childhood unable to be sifted.

Ralph Towner - Solstice (1975) {ECM 1060}
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© 1975 ECM Records | ECM 1060 / 825 458-2
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Post Bop / Folk Jazz / Guitar

This is arguably the first recording to fully flesh out the aural expanse for which ECM has come to be known. Although I am well aware of the immense groundswell of musical activity that was the 1970s, certainly an album like this was a refreshing and altogether mind-altering experience for those fortunate enough to be young musical explorers at the time. Featuring a lineup of musicians who would go on to weave ECM’s significance into the fabric of time, Solstice is a tour de force of musicianship, writing, arrangement, and recording.

Andrew Cyrille Quartet - The Declaration of Musical Independence (2016) {ECM 2430}
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© 2016 ECM Records | ECM 2430
Jazz / Modern Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz

The great avant-jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille – whose associations have ranged from a long collaboration with Cecil Taylor to co-leading the collective Trio 3 with Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman – makes his ECM leader debut with The Declaration of Musical Independence. Featuring a quartet with guitarist Bill Frisell, keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum and bassist Ben Street, the album kicks off with an artfully oblique interpretation of John Coltrane’s “Coltrane Time,” led by Cyrille’s solo drum intro.

Valentin Silvestrov - Sacred Works (2009) {ECM New Series 2117}
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© 2009 ECM Records | ECM New Series 2117
Classical / Choral

Since 2001, ECM has enthusiastically championed the art of Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov with recordings of his orchestral, chamber and vocal works – creations that stand as some of the most arresting and moving in contemporary music. This continues in Silvestrov’s 75th birthday year with “Sacred Songs”, the seventh album ECM has devoted wholly to the composer’s music; it collects sets of songs, refrains, psalms and prayers composed from 2006 to 2008 that reflect the composer’s late-blooming interest in writing for a cappella voices, which led previously to the ECM releases “Requiem for Larissa” and “Sacred Works”.

Bassist Arild Andersen may not be one of ECM's best-known bandleaders (to Americans, that is), but that hasn't stopped him from amassing an impressive catalog as one of the label's senior statesmen. Andersen himself comments in the liner notes at how fortunate and surprised he was when looking back over his catalog and realizing how many younger players graced his sides. The evidence, however, is that Andersen is too humble: his guidance is like a beacon in bringing the best out of many who would become leaders in their own right. A fine example is on "Vanilje," which opens the album and comes from the Masqualero album. Here Andersen, Jon Balke, and drummer Jon Christensen host two stunning players on the front line, young saxophonist Tore Brunborg and a fresh-faced Nils Petter Molvaer on trumpet.

Bennie Maupin - The Jewel In The Lotus (1974) {ECM 1043}
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© 1974, 2007 ECM Records | ECM 1043 / 172 3520
Jazz / Post Bop / Jazz Funk / Modal Music / Reeds

Jazz -funk fans must have been taken aback when multi-instrumentalist and composer Bennie Maupin's Jewel in the Lotus was released by Manfred Eicher's ECM imprint in 1974. For starters, it sounded nothing like Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters recording, which had been released the year before to massive sales and of which Maupin had been such an integral part. Head Hunters has remained one of the most reliable sales entries in Columbia's jazz catalog into the 21st century. By contrast, Jewel in the Lotus sounded like an avant-garde jazz record, but it stood outside that hard-line camp, too, because of its open and purposeful melodies that favored composition and structured improvising over free blowing.

Aparis & Markus Stockhausen - Despite The Fire-Fighters' Efforts (1993) {ECM 1496}
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© 1993 ECM Records | ECM 1496
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Chamber Jazz

Three years after a self-titled debut, the trio known as Aparis set out for its second of two albums for ECM. Much of the sweep of the first can be found slithering throughout Despite the fire-fighters’ efforts…, only here trumpeter Markus Stockhausen’s lines swim eel-like in an even deeper ocean of electronics, courtesy of brother Simon (who also plays soprano sax). Drummer Jo Thönes is gorgeously present at key moments, as in the high-octane intensity that concludes the opening track, “Sunrice.” Before this we are surrounded by dawn-drenched ruins.

Arvo Pärt - Musica Selecta (2015) {2CD ECM New Series 2454/55}
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© 2015 ECM Records | ECM New Series 2454/55 / 481 1905
Classical / Avant-Garde / Choral / Orchestral / Modern Composition / Miscellaneous (Classical)

As the title and subtitle imply, this is a kind of greatest-hits album, with music selected by ECM label producer Manfred Eicher from the 12 albums on the label devoted to the music of Arvo Pärt. Pärt's music is so malleable that people tend to make their own versions of it rather than collect it, but if you wanted an anthology as a starter box, this would be the one to choose. Eicher has worked closely with Pärt since the 1980s, and he has indeed made a sensible "sequence" out of works that do not have a lot of contrast among them.

A Long Story is Anat Fort's debut release on ECM, and is comprised entirely of her original compositions, with one joint effort between Fort and Perry Robinson. From the very first track, the standard-in-the-making "Just Now Var. I," Fort's attractively melodic and Eastern-flavored jazz writing is apparent and ECM's storied history of piano-led groups (think Keith Jarrett, Bobo Stenson, and Tord Gustavsen) continues with the addition of this fine quartet. The "sidemen" on A Long Story are three well-known jazz veterans, led by the great Paul Motian on drums. Perry Robinson makes his ECM debut here and Ed Schuller rounds out the group on double-bass.

Ketil Bjørnstad's passion for the English metaphysical poet John Donne (1572-1631) is a lifelong affair. The Norwegian pianist-composer's settings of Donne's verse have led to recordings including The Shadow, Grace, the ECM album The Light, and now this important disc. "After working with the texts of John Donne for more than twenty years, I still find new approaches to understanding what he wrote and I find music throughout. It is in the language, in the rhythm, in the silence between the sentences - a passionate quest for meaning and reconciliation. Donne's dramatic life is reflected in the texts and everywhere in them you will find the passion, melodies and sounds".