Vinyl LP pressing. Mysterious, dramatic and alluring, Luminessence comes from a peak period in the creative association between Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek, recorded in 1974, immediately after their vibrant Belonging album. Here, Jarrett creates shimmering orchestral frameworks to spur Garbarek to some of his most concentrated, impassioned and expressive playing. "The melodies that Jarrett writes sound like Garbarek improvisations, so great is the rapport between the two men," wrote Ian Carr in his Keith Jarrett biography, while DownBeat, in a 5-star review, observed that "probing deep into his own personal musical cosmos, Jarrett has brought back a chilling and singular achievement that promises to stand as a landmark in the musical landscape of the 70s". Produced by Manfred Eicher, the album that gives the Luminessence audiophile edition it's name is augmented with new liner notes providing historical context.
2019 live release. A solo concert from Keith Jarrett - recorded on the last night of a 2016 European tour at Munich's Philharmonie - finds the great improvising pianist at a peak of invention. Creating a spontaneous suite of forms in the moment with the assurance of a master builder - interspersing touches of lyricism between pieces of polyrhythmic and harmonic complexity - he delivers one of his very finest performances. The audience hangs on every note, every nuance, and is rewarded with tender, magical encores.
The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of directions in music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. They've played together in many permutations over the years, but this is their first album as a quartet. Compositions by Anders Jormin and Trygve Seim, the Finnish traditional "Armon Lapset" (Children of Mercy), and Jormin's arrangement of Ornette Coleman's "What Reason Could I Give" are slotted into a programme of graceful collective improvisations distinguished by lyrical imagination, reflective soloing and sensitive group interaction. PERSONNEL: Arve Henriksen - (trumpet) Trygve Seim - (saxophone) Anders Jormin - (double bass) Markku Ounaskari - (drums, percussion)
Thomas Strønen - "Relations". Musical messages from Oslo, New York, Basel and Lugano - recorded between 2018 and 2022 - are juxtaposed and recombined on an absorbing recording that features Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen solo and in a series of duets. With such partners as Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland and Jorge Rossy, the musical frame of reference is very broad. Strønen offers a project that implies new threads of connectivity, new creative relationships. Produced by Manfred Eicher.
Dino Saluzzi/Jacob Young/Jose Maria Saluzzi - "El Viejo Caminante". The Argentinean father and son team of Dino and Jose Maria Saluzzi are joined by Norway's Jacob Young, in an album of musical depth and great charm. "It fills me with joy," says Dino Saluzzi, delighting in this recording's sonic blend. "Jacob and Jose are very good together. They have different sounds, different visions, but when it comes to the artistic output there is something beautiful happening." The elder Saluzzi has lost none of his youthful enthusiasm for artistic collaboration, or for venturing beyond stylistic borders: "I always strive to make contact with new ideas outside my normal element," he says, still seeking out contexts that offer, as he puts it, "potential for both musical and human growth." The program includes originals, new and old, by all three musicians, a song by Karin Krog, as well as a couple of standards.
Vinyl LP pressing. Anchored in the idea that, despite all obstacles, the human experience casts a net of possibilities, Defiant Life - Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith's second duo recording for ECM - proves a profound meditation on the human condition and both the suffering and resilience it entails. Recorded within two days at Lugano's Auditorio Stelio Molo, Defiant Life was produced by Manfred Eicher. "This recording session was conditioned by our ongoing sorrow and outrage over the past year's cruelties, but also by our faith in human possibility." - Vijay Iyer
Bennie Maupin has been an inventive contributor to iconic records, including Miles Davis's Bitches Brew, Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi and Headhunters, and Marion Brown's Afternoon Of A Georgia Faun. His recordings under his own name have been infrequent but his leader debut, is indeed a jewel. "A more selfless album is hard to imagine," said DownBeat in 1975. "On The Jewel In The Lotus, the sound is supreme, and all the players strive to achieve a thorough blending." Recorded in New York in 1974, it is a long overdue addition to the ECM Luminessence Series.
Vox Clamantis - "Part: And I Heard a Voice". Estonian vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis and their leader Jaan-Eik Tulve have established themselves among the leading interpreters of Arvo Part's music over a quarter-century of close collaboration with the composer - a relationship that builds on the almost half a decade-long artistic partnership between Part and producer Manfred Eicher. 'And I heard a voice' was recorded in Haapsalu Cathedral, Estonia and is released as Arvo Part turns 90.
Rolf Lislevand - "Libro primo". On his newest recording for ECM's New Series, lute virtuoso Rolf Lislevand turns to the revolutionary Baroque literature for archlute and chitarrone, interpreting 17th-century lute composers' works largely found in their first printed books - their respective libri primi. In striking solo performances, the Norwegian explores the progressive nature of pieces by the Italians Johann Hieronymous Kapsberger, Giovanni Paolo Foscarini and Bernardo Gianoncelli as well as two Recerercadas of Spaniard Diego Ortiz.
John Taylor/Marc Johnson/Joey Baron - "Tramonto". Recorded live in Birmingham during a Contemporary Music Network tour in 2002, Tramonto finds UK pianist John Taylor in a celebratory, outgoing mood, fronting one of his most dynamic and quick-witted groups, with US musicians Marc Johnson and Joey Baron. Here, the repertoire features the well-known Taylor tunes "Pure and Simple," "Between Moons" and "Ambleside" (heard in an epic 15-minute version), as well as the Ralph Towner-composed title track and Steve Swallow's "Up Too Late." In all, a welcome reminder of what a creative force John Taylor could be, as leader of an outstanding piano trio.
Their last album with works by Robert Schumann, Edvard Grieg and Tonu Korvits saw the Gazzana sisters Natascia and Raffaella "achieve the highest levels of instinctive expression", according to the French daily paper Le Monde, and one could argue that this holds even more true for their new recording with music by Sergei Prokofiev, Arvo Part and Alfred Schnittke. The duo's reading of Prokofiev's Sonata No. 1, op. 80 opens the proceedings with urgency, true to the composer's intention (Prokofiev famously declared that a particular passage "should sound in such a way that people should jump in their seat..."), but also with lyrical serenity, casting the work's third movement in a spellbinding light. His Five Melodies op. 35a are interpreted with equal conviction, while Part's Spiegel i'm Spiegel, performed with poise and humility, serves as a thoughtful respite. Concluding the programme is Schnittke's Gratulationsrondo - a celebratory piece that finds the composer circumventing his usual polystylistic ways and instead excelling in a more traditional approach to the classical idiom. Recorded at the Reitstadel, Neumarkt in February 2025, the album was produced by Manfred Eicher.
There's a rare acoustic alchemy at play in Time Is A Blind Guide. At times, the group's three string instruments make up a firm trio-unit that enters into thoughtful dialog with piano and percussion, but for the most part, the group's pulse works as a whole, with each instrument dynamically gliding in and out of the picture, captured in well-known acoustics of Rainbow Studio. The album, recorded at Rainbow Studio, Oslo in 2021, and mixed in Munich in 2024, was produced by Manfred Eicher.
Vinyl LP pressing. 'Making Music' is a luminous fusion album led by tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, recorded in Oslo in December 1986 and released on ECM in 1987. The quartet brings together Hariprasad Chaurasia on flute, John McLaughlin on acoustic guitar and Jan Garbarek on saxophones, weaving Indian classical sensibilities with jazz and world textures. The compositions unfold with restraint and elegance, inviting spacious interplay, virtuoso dialogues, and subtle rhythmic depth.
The striking cover image of an abandoned swing illuminated against a field of glittering stars makes a compelling visual metaphor for the music on Close. "Music is a twilight language," Steve Tibbetts confirms. "The job is to translate some shadow into sound." On his 11th ECM release, the Minnesotan guitarist resumes the quest, slowly developing his yearning improvised melodies over layered loops and drones and darkly rumbling percussion. If the sound colors, including distorted electric guitar and sparkling 12 string acoustic, make this music of the west, it's gradual, almost hypnotic unfolding continues to suggest eastern affinities. "I am still reaching for the evocative sound of Sultan Khan," says Tibbetts, speaking of the late Indian sarangi master whose playing has long been among his major influences.
Cellular Songs represents the latest chapter in Meredith Monk's extraordinary journey as a composer, vocalist, and multidisciplinary artist. Conceived as the second part of an interdisciplinary trilogy that began with On Behalf of Nature, this work turns inward-toward the microscopic worlds of life and transformation. Drawing inspiration from the processes of replication, mutation, and growth, Monk weaves a tapestry of interlocking vocal lines and sonic textures that evoke the vitality and fragility of living systems. - Performed with her Vocal Ensemble, the album embodies what Monk calls "cooperation, interdependence, and kindness"-values she sees as essential in the face of contemporary disconnection. The New York Times hailed the premiere as "an unmistakable sense of hope... a synthesis like the one created in Cellular Songs makes it easier to conceive of bridging divides." Musically, the album finds Monk refining her sculptural approach to sound, rotating phrases and gestures in space to form living, breathing musical organisms. Recorded at Power Station in New York in 2022 and 2024, the album reveals Monk at her most adventurous and emotionally resonant, reaffirming her status as one of the most visionary voices of our time.
An essential document of European jazz in the 1970s, and a recording that still sounds magnificent today, Balladyna exerted an enduring influence on successive generations of improvising musicians - in Poland and Finland above all, though it also cast it's spell more widely. As Tomasz Stanko once said, "My international name was built on Balladyna." The quartet explores the seven originals on the album with a strong sense of rhythmic propulsion and melodic curiosity throughout. Recorded at Tonstudio Bauer in 1975, Balladyna was produced by Manfred Eicher.
Grammy Award-winning titan of jazz saxophone Joe Lovano, hailed by The New York Times as "one of the greatest musicians in jazz history," and virtuoso guitarist Julian Lage have enjoyed a long journey of mutual artistic admiration. This new electrifying ensemble also features longtime collaborators Santi Debriano on bass and drummer Will Calhoun.
Mountain Call is a peak achievement in Miroslav Vitous's music, presenting the masterful bassist in varying ensemble configurations that prominently include the renowned French clarinetist Michel Portal and late American drummer Jack DeJohnette, among others. Persuasively bringing together several tendencies and streams in Vitous's work, the album bears testimony to his multiple skills as dynamic improviser, jazz composer, arranger and creative sampling pioneer. The prodigiously gifted Czech bassist and founding member of Weather Report first came to ECM in the late 1970s, in a collaborative trio with Terje Rypdal and Jack DeJohnette. Mountain Call was recorded at multiple sessions over a period of seven years at Vitous's Prague studio. The album was produced by Miroslav Vitous and Manfred Eicher.
Vinyl LP pressing. In a review of one of their early performances together, writer Wolfgang Sandner made the interesting point that Tunisian oud virtuoso Anouar Brahem is as far removed from Arab music as it is traditionally played in his homeland as Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek is from the jazz mainstream. Certainly, Brahem and Garbarek are two very independent spirits, outsiders who meet here as equals - accompanied, on parts of this intriguing, often thrilling, production by a third original, the Pakistani tabla master, Ustad Shaukat Hussain. Originally released in 1994. ECM Luminessence Series.
Introducing a new piano trio from Norway, Tord Gustavsen's young group - already making waves in the Far North where "Changing Places" has soared into the pop charts - is telling new stories within the framework of the jazz tradition. This is music that sings, at once gentle and robust. The songs Gustavsen writes sound like standards-in-the-making. Lyrical, immediately memorable, they are songs of an appealing freshness yet sophisticated in their involvement with the melodic line. And the trio improvises, with flair and originality, inside their structures.
With Convergence, his second solo album, Swedish-born bassist Bjorn Meyer further develops music on the blueprint established with his critically praised recording Provenance (2017), making use of the technical potential of the bass guitar to establish striking sonorities and rich-grained textures while also being acutely aware of the acoustic space in which his sounds emerge and bloom. This time around, the scene has shifted to Munich's Bavaria Musikstudios, a space long associated with music for film, and Meyer's atmospheric explorations conjure images in the mind. In parallel with his technical innovations, he has also grown as a melodist, and much of Convergence has a yearning, songful quality. In brief, it feels complete in itself, more than a document of instrumental prowess.
With so much virtuosity living inside bassist Gary Peacock and guitarist Ralph Towner, one might expect from this duo a showcase of lively showmanship. And while this is most certainly at it's heart, on the whole we are given an understated album recorded out of deepest respect for it's listeners. The improv is robust yet tender and marked by a distinct patina around the edges. Oracle is like the ocean: we know it's overall shape, but the movement of every wave is at the whim of something unseen that flows through all of us.
A subtle tour de force are the words with which Billboard met guitarist Bill Connors's Of Mist and Melting upon the album's release in 1978; and revisiting this music decades later only confirms that special spirits were indeed at work when the Manfred Eicher-produced session with Jan Garbarek, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette and Connors unfolded at Oslo's Talent Studio in December 1977. Reissued as part of ECM's Luminessence series, Of Mist and Melting arrives in a tip-on gatefold jacket with new liner notes and photos from the archive.
In Pas(s)ing was Mick Goodrick's recording debut as leader, after some years with Gary Burton and before that, a spell with Woody Herman. Never very tigerish about self-promotion, Goodrick has spent most of his life teaching in Boston. Jazz Times has called him "perhaps the most influential mentor in the history of jazz guitar." This 1978 production emphasizes what a creative player he is in his own right, inspired by the great team of players assembled for the session. The playful album title alludes to ECM's first office address, which was, yes, in Pasing. An ECM Luminessence Series release.
For Winter Songs, Steve Swallow's first true leader date in over a decade (Into The Woodworks, 2013) and his first recorded appearance on the label after John Scofield's Swallow Tales and Carla Bley's Life Goes On in 2020, the master-bassist has gathered together a group of close confidants to accompany him through some of the most intrinsic and melodically immediate music he has ever written.
For 'A Sun That Never Sets,' Ralph Alessi expands the quartet configuration with a fifth player for a set of eleven new compositions that elaborate on Alessi's intricate writing with deep thought and a fresh sense of adventure. The last time Alessi operated with a quintet was with saxophonist Ravi Coltrane in his This Against That ensemble, captured on 2019's acclaimed Imaginary Friends. Instead of a saxophonist, this time the trumpeter's brother Joseph Alessi comes into the fold and fortifies an already state-of-the-art group with inspired trombone lines in frequently wild interplay with the trumpet.
Vox Clamantis - "Part: And I heard a voice". Estonian vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis and their leader Jaan-Eik Tulve have established themselves among the leading interpreters of Arvo Part's music over a quarter-century of close collaboration with the composer - a relationship that builds on the almost half a decade-long artistic partnership between Part and producer Manfred Eicher. 'And I heard a voice' was recorded in Haapsalu Cathedral, Estonia and is released as Arvo Part turns 90.
