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.

Pianist Alexander Lonquich, alongside the Muncih Chamber Orchestra, rises to the challenge of performing the entirety of Beethoven’s piano concertos, programmed in chronological order.

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)

ALEXANDER KNAIFEL: CHAPTER EIGHT

Eight years after Blue Maqams, Anouar Brahem returns with a poignant project, titled after a line of verse by poet Mahmoud Darwish, which asks "Where should the birds fly, after the last sky?" Graceful chamber pieces for oud, cello, piano and bass subtly address the metaphysical question and it's broad resonances in a troubled time. While drawing upon the traditional modes of Arab music, Brahem has consistently sought to engage with the wider world, too, and found inspiration in many sources from different cultures. Bassist Dave Holland and pianist Django Bates are again part of the Tunisian oud master's international quartet, joined now by cellist Anja Lechner.

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.

ARVO PART: TRACTUS

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

Olari Elts/Estonian National Symphony Orchestra - "Erkki-Sven Tuur: Aeris". Aeris is the ninth ECM New Series album to feature the vibrant and highly expressive music of Erkki-Sven Tuur. Olari Elts, a long-time champion of Tuur's compositions, conducts the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in compelling, intensely focused performances of Phantasma, de Profundis and Tuur's tenth symphony AERIS, a vast drama of shifting energies and interactions, which is scored for horn quartet and orchestra. The symphony is in four movements that transition seamlessly. Tuur: "Each movement expresses a different development between the ensemble of soloists and the orchestra. Sometimes their motifs spread into the orchestra like memes that start changing and gradually take on lives of their own..." The album was recorded at Tallinn's Estonian Concert Hall.

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.

Joe Lovano and his Polish conspirators from the Marcin Wasilewski Trio are endowed with an especially adventurous spirit on their second joint endeavour for ECM. On Homage, the quartet investigates the type of free-flowing interplay and expansive passages of improvisation that have become a staple in Lovano's ventures with his Trio Tapestry. Two long-form compositions and the title track "Homage" make up the bedrock of the album and find the players at their most exploratory, with Joe frequently swapping out his tenor and t?rogat? for a variety of percussion instruments. The group's pass at "Love In The Garden" embellishes the evocative melody with fluid harmonies, wrapped in haunting rubato tides. Improvised miniatures complete a program that proves Wasilewski and his trio cohorts to be the ideal match for Lovano's singular musings and the group's seamless chemistry is more apparent than ever on Homage.

Double vinyl LP pressing. Eight years after Blue Maqams, Anouar Brahem returns with a poignant project, titled after a line of verse by poet Mahmoud Darwish, which asks "Where should the birds fly, after the last sky?" Graceful chamber pieces for oud, cello, piano and bass subtly address the metaphysical question and it's broad resonances in a troubled time. While drawing upon the traditional modes of Arab music, Brahem has consistently sought to engage with the wider world, too, and found inspiration in many sources from different cultures. Bassist Dave Holland and pianist Django Bates are again part of the Tunisian oud master's international quartet, joined now by cellist Anja Lechner.

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.

Savina Yannatou's fifth ECM album revolves around the theme of water in it's many manifestations. Water as a blessing and a curse. A life-sustaining source and a mortal threat in the elemental power of the storm. Multicultural in their musical passions, and daring in their stylistic juxtapositions, Savina and friends also illuminate the connections between the traditions. Featuring Primavera en Salonico and Lamia Bedioui.

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.

Signum Quartet - "A Dark Flaring: Works for String Quartet" 'A Dark Flaring' marks the Signum Quartet's return to ECM's New Series after debuting for the label on Erkki-Sven Tuur's chamber music recording Lost Prayers (2020). Here, the quartet has put together a unique program dedicated to six South African composers whose works for string quartet are united by the way they blend respect for the past with an instinct for the future. All six composers reflect their country's complex and troubled history through music which is strikingly original. Gramophone magazine has described the quartet's sound as "passionate, often brilliant, but also clear and lean" and their sensitive approach to these dynamically contrasting works is further evidence of the quartet's accomplished craft. Large idiomatic bridges connect seemingly disparate musical heritages, from the South African Xhosa and Zulu traditions to 20th century minimalism and reaching all the way back to the Renaissance.

MOUNTAIN CALL

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.

REACHING FOR THE MOON

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.