https://www.ecmrecords.com/home
ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Manfred Eicher in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM’s artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres. ECM’s motto is “the Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence”, according to a 1971 review of ECM releases in CODA, a Canadian jazz magazine…
Review of Pablo Marquez, Musica del Delphin, ECM, 2007
https://neuguitars.com/2016/06/07/review-of-pablo-marquez-musica-del-delphin-ecm-2007/
Music Del Delfin, released by ECM New Series in 2007, is a collection of music by Luys de Narvaez, Spanish musician and composer born in 16th century. The 17 pieces contained in the CD were originally written for the vihuela, an instrument similar to guitar in vogue in the 16th century and which today it’s considered by many as a precursor of the six-string instrument that we all know……
Review of Gefion by Jakob Bro, ECM, 2015
https://neuguitars.com/2016/06/15/gefion-by-jakob-bro-ecm-2015/
What a truly remarkable and interesting record this Gefion, first job as leaders by the Danish guitarist Jakob Bro for the ECM label; It comes after an intense apprenticeship and after the projects in collaboration with Paul Motian and Tomasz Stanko. His career is really impeccable, Bro is one of the most established Danish jazz musicians, won numerous awards, recorded ten albums as a leader (with guests at the highest level, as Bill Frisell, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Bley, Kurt Rosenwinkel, George Garzone) and other albums as a sideman….
Review of Musiche Nuove by Rolf Lislevand, ECM 2006
https://neuguitars.com/2016/09/11/review-of-musiche-nuove-by-rolf-lislevand-ecm-2006-on-neuguitars-blog/
Among the thoughts and ideas that emerge from the reading of Luciano Berio’s books there is also a special attention about the musician and the contemporary composer’s roles in relation to the past and their musical training. I quote from his book “Remembering the future: “The conservation of the past makes sense because even the most unprepared listener is aware that music cannot be hung on the wall. Music is performed, is constantly in motion, forever “in progress”, especially since there is nothing really permanent to guarantee continuity between the mind of a composer and the hands of a performer, between the musical structure and the levels of articulation, as they are heard.”….
Review of Diminuito by Rolf Lislevand, ECM, 2009
https://neuguitars.com/2016/09/13/review-of-diminuito-by-rolf-lislevand-ecm-2009-on-neuguitars-blog/
“Diminuito” sounds like a curious title for this cd. In the booklet that accompanies the CD Maestro Rolf Lislevand gives us an explanation about this name: “Diminutions, divisions, or glosas were one of the renaissance’s unique inventions. Technically it means embellishing a melody into a much more flavored and elaborated melody in faster movement and shorter rhythmical values, presuming that the simple melody still remains in the listener’s mind. This supreme discipline of ornamentation became a new work of art in itself…
Review of La Mascarade by Rolf Lislevand, ECM, 2016
https://neuguitars.com/2016/09/14/review-of-la-mascarade-by-rolf-lislevand-ecm-2016-on-neuguitars-blog/
Maestro Rolf Lislevand has a great, unique, terrible flaw: he makes us wait too long. His last Diminuito work for ECM is dated 2009, seven years is a long time, very long for those who loves his sublime and noble art. At the same time it is true that Lislevand knows how to immediately be forgiven, just a few, very few notes of the Prelude in ré mineur by Rober De Visée, the song that opens this beautiful and essential cd, to make the waiting and the desire disappear, and bring up the pure pleasure and satisfaction that listening to music always give to his listeners…
Review of Streams by Jakob Bro (ECM Records 2016)
https://neuguitars.com/2016/12/19/review-of-streams-by-jakob-bro-ecm-records-2016-on-neuguitars-blog/
I waited for this disc with high expectations. The Danish guitarist Jakob Bro is now emerging as one of the new worldwide leader in jazz and jazz guitar. To increase the sense of expectation also helped the many videos that were so popular on youtube in the last that immortalized the guitarist with his new trio with the living drum’s legend (I think it is now more than fair to call him that), the always smiling Joey Baron and bassist Thomas Morgan…
Review of Local Objects by Zsofia Boros, ECM, 2016
https://neuguitars.com/2017/01/22/review-of-local-objects-by-zsofia-boros-ecm-2016-on-neuguitars-blog/
Hungarian-born but from a long time living in Vienna, Zsofia Boros is an extraordinary classically trained guitar player, devoted to the interpretation of the best contemporary music for guitar: her style spans a wide musical spectrum, wider even than her amazing debut “En otra parte”, published in 2013, always for Manfred Eicher’s ECM label.
Review of My Foolish Heart by Ralph Towner, ECM, 2017
https://neuguitars.com/2017/11/29/review-of-my-foolish-heart-by-ralph-towner-ecm-2017-on-neuguitars-blog/
There is some music who plays well in silence. I try to explain myself better: there are some music that if listened to by moments of silence seem naturally tied to it. They are born, they dive, play, they return in silence. They are a kind of natural complement, a kind of reflection and at the same time a prolongation, an integration of silence….
Review of Now, And Then, ECM, 2017 Pablo Marquez and Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana
https://neuguitars.com/2018/02/22/review-of-now-and-then-ecm-2017-pablo-marquez-and-orchestra-della-svizzera-italiana-on-neuguitars-blog/
What a sound! What a sound! This is a record that must be bought and listened to only for the sound that it manages to create! The ECM is confirmed as one of the record companies more attentive to the value and quality of sound recorded, releasing this beautiful cd where the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, led by Dennis Russell Davies, interprets the transcriptions of Gabrieli, Frescobaldi, Legrenzi, Viadana and Wassenaer by Bruno Maderna (1920-1973) and Chemins V by Luciano Berio (1925-2003)….
Review of Secret History Josquin / Victoria by John Potter, ECM, 2017
https://neuguitars.com/2017/11/27/review-of-secret-history-josquin-victoria-by-john-potter-ecm-2017-on-neuguitars-blog/
I bought this record because I was very interested about listening to the three vihuelas of Ariel Abramovich (tenor and bass vihuelas), Jacob Heringman (tenor and bass vihuelas) and Lee Santana (alto and tenor vihuelas) playing togheter. Although this blog is mainly devoted to contemporary music, I don’t regret any incursion in baroque and renaissance music….
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