2019 release. The Danish String Quartet's Grammy-nominated Prism project links Bach fugues, late Beethoven quartets and works by modern masters. In volume two of the series, Bach's Fugue in Bb minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier (in the arrangement by Viennese composer Emanuel Aloys F�rster) is brought together with Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 130 and Alfred Schnittke s String Quartet No.3 (composed in 1983). As the quartet explains, A beam of music is split through Beethoven's prism. The important thing to us is that these connections be experienced widely. We hope the listener will join us in the wonder of these beams of music that travel all the way from Bach through Beethoven to our own times. Recorded in historic Reitstadel Neumarkt and produced by Manfred Eicher.

ARVO PART: THE DEER'S CRY

2019 release. In the latest chapter in Andr�s Schiff's ongoing documentation of Franz Schubert's music, the great pianist plays the Four Impromptus D 899, and compositions from 1828, the last year of Schubert's too brief life: The Three Pieces D 946 ("impromptus in all but name" notes Misha Donat in the CD booklet), the C minor Sonata D 958 and the A major Sonata D 959. Schiff again chooses to use his fortepiano made by Franz Brodmann in Vienna, around 1820. "It is to me ideally suited to Schubert's keyboard works," he has said. There is something quintessentially Viennese in it's timbre, it's tender mellowness, it's melancholic cantabilit�." Critics have agreed, unanimous also in their praise of Schiff s interpretations: "I cannot think of anyone of his calibre who has mastered the fortepiano as well as the modern piano and shown such distinction on both," wrote Stephen Plaistow in an Editor's Choice review in Gramophone. "In Schubert Schiff has a claim to be considered sovereign among today's players, carrying forward the reading and interpretation of him into areas that others have not fully explored."

TOUS DES OISEAUX

2019 release. 25 years on from the release of Officium, the groundbreaking alliance of Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and British vocal group The Hilliard Ensemble, comes Remember me, my dear, recorded during the group's final tour in 2014. The program is emblematic of the range of repertoire the musicians explored together. And this final album reminds us that the unique Garbarek/Hilliard combination, and it's unprecedented exploration of sound, was consistently breathtaking.

RIVAGES

KATE MOORE: DANCES & CANONS

TUUR: SEVENTH SYMPHONY / PIANO

2020 release. A mainstay of the French jazz scene, Algeria-born bassist Michel Benita's project, Looking At Sounds, introduces his revised quartet: Matthieu Michel (flugelhorn) and Philippe Garcia (drums) from his band, Ethics, plus completed Jozef Dumoulin (keyboard). Dumoulin's swirling sounds inspired Benita to write the evocative new music. With a bewitching cover version of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Inutil Paisagem", an improvised "Cloud To Cloud" and an interpretation of Jule Styne's "Never Never Land".

After The Fall [2 CD] The group colloquially known as "the Standards trio" has made many outstanding recordings, and this album must rank with the very best of them. In his liner note Keith Jarrett writes "For me, it's not only a historical document, but a truly great concert." The concert, recorded in November 1998, marked Jarrett's return to the stage after a two year hiatus. Joined by improvising partners Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, he glides and soars through classics of the Great American Songbook. Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette.

After acclaimed ECM recordings with the Maciej Obara Quartet, Polish pianist Dominik Wania delivers solo album, Lonely Shadows. Wania's sensitivity to touch, tone and texture is informed by his classical background and his instincts of a great improviser, acutely focused on the unfolding details in the responsive interior of the Auditorio Stelio Molo studio. The balanced influences from both disciplines makes him one of the most distinctive players of his generation. Produced by Manfred Eicher.

2010 release from lauded Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen. On Restored Returned, Gustavsen delivers a strikingly different album, branching off in new directions with a reconfigured band. Into the group come two Norwegian improvisers familiar to ECM listeners. New bassist is Mats Eilertsen, well-known for his work with Jacob Young. Saxophonist Tore Brunborg too, has previously been heard on ECM discs with Arild Andersen, Jon Balke's Magnetic North Orchestra, and Misha Alperin. For the first time on a Gustavsen recording, vocals are featured: The voice of Kristin Asbjornsen, with a husky timbre comparable to Billie Holiday or Madeleine Peyroux.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2019 release. Louis Sclavis's 13th ECM recording finds the French clarinetist drawing inspiration from two sources the street art of Ernest Pignon-Ernest, and the interpretive originality of a splendid new quartet. Pignon-Ernest's works were previously the subject of Sclavis's highly acclaimed 2002 recording Napoli's Walls. This time Sclavis looks at a broader range of the artist's in situ collages from Ramallah to Rome, in search of "a dynamic, a movement that will give birth to a rhythm, an emotion, a song." In the Sclavis group, gifted bassist Sarah Murcia and expressive drummer Christophe Lavergne join pianist Benjamjn Moussay (a key collaborator on Sources and Silk and Salt Melodies) making this the first time Sclavis has explored in characteristically individual fashion - the classic jazz format of reeds, piano, bass and drums on an ECM disc. Recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Vinyl LP pressing. After acclaimed ECM recordings with the Maciej Obara Quartet, Polish pianist Dominik Wania delivers solo album, Lonely Shadows. Wania's sensitivity to touch, tone and texture is informed by his classical background and his instincts of a great improviser, acutely focused on the unfolding details in the responsive interior of the Auditorio Stelio Molo studio. The balanced influences from both disciplines makes him one of the most distinctive players of his generation. Produced by Manfred Eicher.

OLD & NEW DREAMS