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.
Post-classical composer, sound artist, and curator Matthew Patton returns with his second album as Those Who Walk Away. Afterlife Requiem is an elegy to friend and collaborator Johann Johannsson. Drone, electroacoustics, and near-silences extracted from unfinished recordings on Johannsson hard drives, underpin two string quintets-Ghost Orchestra (Reykjavik) and Possible Orchestra (Winnipeg)-processed and erased in a doleful durational work. Patton also works again with Andy Rudolph (Guy Maddin) and Paul Corley (Sigur Ros, Ben Frost) on co-production and sound design, to forge a simmering physicality that juxtaposes roiling low-end with haunting movements of ghostly strings. Everything I have ever written is a Requiem. Everything an ending. Death is smeared all over this music. My work is about disappearance-of the present, the past, of everything. Afterlife Requiem gets slower and slower over it's duration, it is one huge ritardando, time is not just slowing down-it is disappearing. Without even thinking, two related tragedies occurred and came to the surface organically while I was writing, recording, and working: the death of my mother and the death of composer and friend Johann Johannsson. When I start writing, I am not thinking of anything in particular, I am just writing, composing, recording, and listening... but something always makes itself apparent or pushes itself through in an unforeseen way. After my mother's medically-assisted death, in clearing out her apartment, I realized that I was also erasing the physical manifestation of her world-and that I was doing the exact same thing with the music I was writing and recording. During this time, Johann's death also kept making itself apparent. For Afterlife Requiem I have taken short abandoned fragments from Johann Johannsson's hard drives and placed these disembodied audio ghosts in alternating sections within my own music, leaving them impure-and in the process blurring the distinction between making and un-making. After his death, I had been given these hard drives from Johannsson's Berlin studio to listen to. This music was abandoned, in various states of formation and dissolution: an index of decayed and dead memories, forgotten and now existing only within a series of interlocking mechanical parts which in time will themselves fail and disappear, like everything else. For months, I listened to these remains of Johann's music obsessively, trying to discover clues about Johann before he died. Many times I would find that he had left the recording device going long after the recorded music was over. He seemed to be unaware that the music had ceased or didn't register this was the end of the music or maybe he was distracted by something else. But I found these long silences profoundly emotional and touching.
Shards is a oneness of performance and transformation, transformation as performance. As Jason Moran and Marcus Gilmore play, BlankFor. Ms records micro fragments of time and sends them back to his collaborators sped up, slowed down, reversed, broken into ever tinier grains of data and smeared into a sparkling blur. Moran and Gilmore receive glimpses into their immediate past, or even further back in time, like they're playing into a broken mirror - not just cracked in it's visual plane, but in the sense of it's shards shattering time and light, showing them past and future. Transparent Vinyl
Double vinyl LP pressing. "Incomparable" is what the German weekly paper Die Zeit called this album on it's release in 2000, before going on to describe the music as follows: "A high, warm voice sings fragile songs, Annette Peacock accompanies herself on the grand piano, a string quartet models sound sculptures: the time measure from classical music, the feeling from jazz, openness from the lyrics, and a voice of dreams." An Acrobat's Heart is a ravishingly beautiful album by one of the most mysterious, elusive and beguiling figures on the fringes of jazz. It features the unique vocals and piano playing of singer-songwriter Annette Peacock, performing her own compositions with the acclaimed Cikada String Quartet. Available for the first time on vinyl, this ECM Luminessence Series is presented in tip-on gatefold jacket.
The internationally acclaimed 12 Ensemble return with their third studio album Metamorphosis, recorded at the iconic Abbey Rd studios. From the divine nature of transformation to alien visions of new worlds and rebirth, the conductor-less 12 Ensemble explore Renaissance hymn reborn as futuristic prayer, ancient Japanese ritual, otherworldly operatic arias and a monumental elegy that sees the ensemble harness it's biggest forces to date. This deluxe double-vinyl package has been created in collaboration with celebrated Art Director Ben Ditto, featuring photography by Greta Ilieva. Recorded in London's Abbey Road Studio 2, this high-quality edition is pressed in France from a bespoke lacquer cut by Cicely Balston. Presented in a double gatefold package with gold-foil embossing and UV gloss to the front cover, the record includes a foreword by author Charlie Fox and liner notes by Hugh Morris. The luxury 300g cover contains two slide-out double-sided record sleeves featuring further artwork from the series, and a double-sided foldout poster on 150g fine-art paper.
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
180g vinyl compilation captures the emotional depth and storytelling of France's legendary "Little Sparrow" through her most iconic chansons recorded between 1946 and 1961. The 18-track collection features perennial classics like "La Vie en Rose" and "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien," showcasing the dramatic vocal power that made Edith Piaf a global cultural icon.
Rebirth Brass Band is New Orleans premier Brass Band. This is their 2001 recording that includes their collaboration with Rap Legends Soulja Slim ("You Don't Wanna Go To War") and Cheeky Blakk ("Pop That Pussy"). First time on vinyl! Two Record Set!
For her new recording, entitled Or (light), cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton has devised a two-part narrative, "like freeze frames, like incursions into time": first, Couperin's Les leçons de ténèbres or the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah. Prophecies are the time before. Before destruction and tears: "We hear the song of the prophet lamenting, but the possibility that this will not happen still exists." Then comes "our time": "With his dramatic force, Vivaldi confronts us with our present. He says, 'This is now.'" Sonia has chosen several excerpts from operas as well as two violin concertos. She transcribed most of the pieces in this programme for solo cello or two cellos, two voices that she plays herself. She also imagined bridges to other lights, those of Mahut's percussion and Marius Atherton's electric guitar and MS20 synthesiser.
Pianist-composer Vijay Iyer follows his 2021 ECM disc Uneasy - the first to showcase his trio featuring bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey - with Compassion, another album in league with these two gifted partners. The New York Times captured the special qualities of this group, pointing to the trio's flair for playing "with a lithe range of motion and resplendent clarity... while stoking a kind of writhing internal tension. Crucial to that balance is their ability to connect with each other almost telepathically." Compassion, Iyer's eighth release as a leader for ECM, continues his drive to explore fresh territory while also referencing his forebears along the way, two of them long associated with the label. The album includes a lyrical homage to Chick Corea via the late pianist's valedictory interpretation of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed." Another tip of the hat comes with "Nonaah," a whirlwind of a piece by avant-garde sage Roscoe Mitchell, a key mentor for the pianist. Then there are Iyer's own melodically alluring, rhythmically invigorating compositions, ranging from the pensive title track to the hook-laced highlights "Tempest" and "Ghostrumental."
Nikolaus Harnoncourt describes Mozart's Requiem as "an intensely personal confrontation, frightening and moving in the case of a composer who normally kept his life and experience divorced from his art to an astonishing degree". This famous recording uses an edition published by Eulenberg in 1972; seeking to come closer to the spirit of the composer himself, it replaces the familiar instrumentation of Franz Xaver Sussmayr, who completed the Requiem after Mozart's death. For the 40th anniversary of this recording, Warner Classics has newly remastered it from original tapes in High Definition 192kHz/24-bit.
Despite various reissue formats over several decades, the seven original LPs contained in Thelonious Monk - The Riverside Tenor Sessions stood perfectly well on their own at the time of initial release and remain among the highest achievements of a truly golden age. Recorded and released between 1956 and 1961, these seven Monk combo albums were critical in Monk's emergence from a decade of ridicule and neglect to his status at the pinnacle of the jazz pantheon. The sextet sessions from which Quartet Plus Two At the Blackhawk sprung started out as a collaboration. The occasion was Monk's second visit to San Francisco. He took his current quartet - Monk on piano; Charlie House, tenor sax; John ore, bass; and Billy Higgins, drums. Plus he added two of the most impressive horn men available on the West Coast - trumpeter Joe Gordon, and tenor sax player Harold Land. This vibrant live performance took place at the famed San Francisco jazz club in 1960. While the entire album showcases the group's remarkable chemistry and improvisational prowess, several standout tracks exemplify the quintet's dynamic energy and innovative approach to jazz. 'Epistrophy,' the iconic Monk composition, is given new life in a live setting, with it's infectious rhythms and memorable melody captivating the audience from the first note. The album displays brilliantly and evocatively several different facets of Monk - his artistry, and his magic. The addition of Land's horn makes for a very soulful set. In addition to some of his best recorded piano performances and more than two dozen of his profoundly personal compositions, the albums in this reissue series provide an overview of the era's major tenor saxophonists, with contributions by Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Johnny Griffin, Charlie Rouse and Harold Land. Max Roach, Art Blakely, Roy Haynes and Thad Jones are among the other jazz immortals featured on the essential Brilliant Corners, Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk Septet, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, Thelonious in Action, Misterioso, 5 by Monk by 5 and Quartet Plus Two At The Blackhawk. Thelonious Monk - Quartet Plus Two At the Blackhawk One of seven standout Thelonious Monk albums from the Riverside Records catalog! Reissued on 180-gram vinyl by Analogue Productions! Mastered AAA by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tape Pressed at Quality Record Pressings Tracklist: Side 1 1. Let's Call This 2. Four in One 3. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You Side 2 1. San Francisco Holiday 2. 'Round Midnight 3. Epistrophy (closing theme)
Gondwana Records is pleased to announce 'Interlude', the second album from Estonian-born, London-based composer and pianist Hanakiv. Showcasing an expanded sound, the compositions trace a journey of overcoming the past, unfolding into a seductively unconventional style imbued with hope and a therapeutic quality.
Vice Versa was created out of the need of Belgian pianist Bram de Looze (LABtrio, Joey Baron, Thomas Morgan, Hank Roberts) to collaborate with artists who he feels are natural extensions to his sound. He quickly found kindred spirits in New York master drummer Eric McPherson (Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, Pharoah Sanders, Fred Hersch) and Berlin bassist Felix Henkelhausen (Jim Black, Nate Wooley, Lotte Anker), two compositional masterminds with a boundless sense of rhythmic inventiveness. The versatile and exploratory trio sets the bar for expressive interpretation and inventive creativity high. They traverse different approaches in which musical rules change without losing momentum. This leads to an interesting musical synthesis where the spirit of traditional jazz language emerges during intuitive musical excursions within free improvisation and contemporary music. Their debut album Vice Versa came out in 2023 on Dox Records to great acclaim. In January of 2025, while Bram de Looze was the Artist in Residence at Brussels Jazz Festival in Flagey, they recorded their second album live on stage, witnessed by a sold-out Studio 1. This album will be released by Challenge Records (NL) in February of 2026.
Miles Davis' first masterpiece, Birth of the Cool, gets the royal treatment in celebration of the legendary trumpeter's centennial. Davis' seminal nonet recordings were captured in 1949-50 with a cast of notable collaborators including Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz and Gil Evans. This mono Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog phono reel master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket featuring session photos.
Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Alts 'N Outs: The Other Side of Blue Note is a compilation of alternate takes & outtakes from iconic Blue Note sessions by Cannonball Adderley, Grant Green, Wayne Shorter, Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith & Sonny Clark.
Vinyl LP pressing, includes digital download. Alice Coltrane's devotion to spirituality was the central purpose of the final four decades of her life, an often-overlooked awakening that largely took shape during her four-year marriage to John Coltrane and after his 1967 death. By 1983, Alice had established the 48-acre Sai Anantam Ashram outside of Los Angeles. She quietly began recording music from the ashram, releasing it within her spiritual community in the form of private press cassette tapes. Luaka Bop is pleased to present the first-ever compilation of recordings from this period, making these songs available to the wider public for the first time. Entitled World Spirituality Classics, Volume 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, the release is the first installment in a planned series of spiritual music from around the globe; curated, compiled and distributed by Luaka Bop.
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - "First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings" - A previously unreleased live recording of drum legend Art Blakey with a classic line-up of the Jazz Messengers, trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt. It was captured on January 14, 1961, at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo during the band's first-ever tour of Japan. Co-produced by Zev Feldman and David Weiss, the audio was newly transferred from the original 1/4" tape reels. First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings [2 LP]
RESPIGHI: PINES OF ROME; ROMAN FESTIVALS FOUNTAINS
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
Vinyl
$59.06Mar 13, 2026
Seiji Ozawa / Boston Symphony Orchestra - Respighi: Pines of Rome; Roman Festivals; Fountains of Rome [180g 2 LP] No contemporary Italian was as successful an instrumental composer in the concert hall in the period after World War I as Ottorino Respighi with his four-movement symphonic poems, 'Fountains of Rome' (1917), 'Pines of Rome' (1924) and 'Feste Romane' (1929). In these works, programme music experienced a magnificent revival. When this Boston Symphony recording was made on 8-track analog in 1977, the nightingale's song was not recorded during the orchestral sessions but added in from an additional tape when the 2-track master was mixed a few weeks later in Hanover. That additional tape is no longer in the archives. So, in preparing this new release for DG's Original Source Series, producer Rainer Maillard decided to use one of Hampe's original recordings (as chosen by Respighi himself), playing the 1910 shellac disc (matrix no. 7438r) on an acoustic gramophone in the Emil Berliner Studios' echo chamber and mixing it in (in real time) while cutting. 2-LP set, 180g vinyl.
![First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings [Vinyl]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/4012655-2747815_ad6aedbd-08ec-42dd-a414-e48fb92acd5b.jpg?v=1788586208&width=800)
![First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings [Vinyl]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/4012655-2747815_ad6aedbd-08ec-42dd-a414-e48fb92acd5b.jpg?v=1788586208&width=400)
