Mathias Eick "Skala"

Mathias Eick
Skala

Mathias Eick: trumpet, vibraphone, electric guitar, double bass
Tore Brunborg: tenor saxophone
Andreas Ulvo: piano
Morten Qvenild: keyboards
Audun Erlien: electric bass
Torstein Lofthus: drums
Gard Nilssen: drums
Sidsel Walstad: harp

Release Date: April 19, 2011

Mathias Eick’s intensely melodic trumpet occupies the center-stage in this album of self-penned tunes, which will appeal to an audience beyond “jazz”. Against the powerful backdrops offered by his sleek, modern band, driven by two drummers, he delivers richly lyrical soliloquies.
Available digitally on April 12th and on CD April 19th.

Listen to a few sample tracks here: http://player.ecmrecords.com/eick

You should be able to find this album in fine record stores but for your convenience, here are the links to the pages where you can order:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J21H6G?ie=UTF8&tag=various02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B004J21H6G

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/skala/id429225648

Find us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/ECMUSA

Iro Haarla Quintet "Vespers"

Iro Haarla Quintet
Vespers

Iro Haarla piano, harp
Mathias Eick trumpet
Trygve Seim tenor and soprano saxophone
Ulf Krokfors double-bass
Jon Christensen drums

Release Date: April 12, 2011

Six years after the much-loved “Northbound” – described by All About Jazz as “lovely, articulate, river-deep music”, a new album of emotionally- powerful ballads from outstanding composer-pianist-harpist Iro Haarla and her remarkable Finnish-Norwegian ensemble.

The line-up is unchanged, likewise the commitment of the players, top-flight improvisers, everyone. “Vespers” continues a tradition of music - and a scope feeling - that Iro helped establish in the Far North in her years as composer/arranger/orchestrator for Edward Vesala’s bands (and magical ECM recordings including “Lumi”, “Ode To The Death Of Jazz”, “Invisible Storm” and “Nordic Gallery”).

Listen to a few sample tracks here: http://player.ecmrecords.com/haarla

You should be able to find these albums in fine record stores but for your convenience, here are the links to the pages where you can order:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004I8AU1O?ie=UTF8&tag=various02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B004I8AU1O

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/no/album/vespers/id416799405

Find us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/ECMUSA

Marcin Wasilewski Trio - "Imprint"

Marcin Wasilewski Trio
Faithful

Marcin Wasilewski piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz double-bass
Michal Miskiewicz drums

Release date: April 12, 2011

Dazzling third ECM album by Poland’s Wasilewski Trio, which perfectly captures the group’s blend of energy and lyricism. There is space here for both the outgoing and the reflective, for profound composition and in-the-moment creativity.

The wide-ranging repertoire on “Faithful” (named after the Ornette Coleman title track) includes five new tunes from the pen of Marcin Wasilewski and timeless pieces by Paul Bley and Hermeto Pascoal. From the standard repertory, the trio plays “The Ballad of the Sad Young Men”. Reaching beyond jazz, the players also find a new approach to Hanns Eisler’s “An den kleinen Radioapparat”.

Listen to a few sample tracks here: http://player.ecmrecords.com/wasilewski

You should be able to find this album in fine record stores but for your convenience, here is the link to the pages where you can order it:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NDVJJG?ie=UTF8&tag=various02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B004NDVJJG


iTunes:http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/faithful/id426488618

March 29th Releases!

Don’t miss these two new March 29th releases!


Julia Hülsmann Trio
Imprint

Julia Hülsmann: piano
Marc Muellbauer: bass
Heinrich Köbberling: drums

On the second ECM disc from the popular Berlin-based Julia Hülsmann Trio, the leader’s themes stand out in stark relief, as if stamped or printed into the surrounding improvisation. “Imprint” offers highly communicative jazz in which melody, clearly-etched melody, is paramount. Hülsmann is a gifted jazz-composer and there are surprises amongst her pieces here, including a powerfully-swinging Thelonious Monk tribute entitled “Who’s Next”. Bassist Muellbauer and drummer Köbberling also contribute intriguing tunes of their own, and this year’s offbeat cover version is a lilting Austrian Schlager tune from the 1940s, “Kauf dir einen bunten Luftballon”.

Listen to a few sample tracks here: http://player.ecmrecords.com/huelsmann


Ketil Bjørnstad / Svante Henryson
Night Song

Ketil Bjørnstad: piano
Svante Henryson: cello

Ketil Bjørnstad returns to the piano/cello duo, instrumentation which defined two of his best-loved albums, “The River” and “Epigraphs” with David Darling, back in 1996 and 1998. This new collaboration with Svante Henryson, however, tells a different story. As cellist, Henryson currently works in duos and trios with distinguished classical musicians including pianists Roland Pöntinen and Bengt Forsberg, clarinettist Martin Fröst, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and baritone Mikael Samuelson. ECM listeners, however, first heard him as a member of Jon Balke’s Magnetic North Orchestra on “Kyanos” (2001). In jazz contexts, he has also played in diverse formations with Tord Gustavsen, Marilyn Mazur, Nils Petter Molvaer, Arild Andersen and others. In rock and pop, he has collaborated with artists from Yngwie Malmsteen to Elvis Costello. In brief, he is an artistic polymath, rather like composer/improviser/author Bjørnstad himself. The music they create together - atmospheric, dark-hued, of melancholic temperament - is similarly beyond category.

Listen to a few sample tracks here: http://player.ecmrecords.com/night-song

Upcoming solo performances by Ketil Bjørnstad in USA:
May 29th – Charleston, SC – Spoleto Festival
May 30th – Charleston, SC – Spoleto Festival
June 1st – Charleston, SC – Spoleto Festival

Starting March 29h, you should be able to find these albums in fine record stores but for your convenience, here are the links to the pages on Amazon.com where you can preorder:
Julia Hülsmann: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DLWGLS?ie=UTF8&tag=various02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B004DLWGLS
Ketil Björnstad: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004D0YX2O?ie=UTF8&tag=various02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B004D0YX2O

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Trio Mediaeval new release and tour

Trio Mediaeval is back with a new album of sacred music released on March 15, 2011.

Trio Mediaeval
A Worcester Ladymass
Anna Maria Friman voice
Linn Andrea Fuglseth voice
Torunn Østrem Ossum voice

Few vocal ensembles produce quite as beautiful and finely blended a sound as this Norwegian trio…
Allan Kozinn, The New York Times

Oslo’s Trio Mediaeval presents a reconstruction of a 13th century votive Mass to the Virgin Mary, based on surviving manuscripts from a Benedectine Abbey in the English Midlands. Inserted amid the medieval music are a Credo and Benedicamus Domino specially composed for this program by Gavin Bryars. Indeed, the old and the new intermingle in the work of this vocal ensemble. Anna Maria Friman: “The members of Trio Mediaeval feel that performing mediaeval music today gives us the freedom to let our imagination and ideas flow, as though we are creating contemporary music.”

Listen to a few sample tracks here: http://player.ecmrecords.com/trio-mediaeval

Upcoming performances of music by Trio Mediaeval in USA:
March 23 – Toronto - St Anne’s Church performance of new piece by James Rolfe
March 26 - Kansas City, MO - Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Friends of Chamber Music
March 29 - University Park, PA - Pasquerilla Spiritual Center Penn State University
March 31 - Hanover, NH - Dartmouth College

You should be able to find this album in fine record stores but for your convenience, here is the link to the page on Amazon.com where you can preorder: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IXPXGG?ie=UTF8&tag=various02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B004IXPXGG

New release from Paolo Fresu and A Filetta

On February 22nd ECM released Mistico Mediterraneo, a mesmerizing collaboration between lyrical Italian jazz improvisers Paolo Fresu and Daniele di Bonaventura and the Corsican vocal ensemble A Filetta.

Paolo Fresu
Mistico Mediterraneo

Paolo Fresu trumpet, flugelhorn
Daniele di Bonaventura bandoneon

A Filetta:
Jean-Claude Acquaviva: seconda
Paul Giansily: terza
Jean-Luc Geronimi: seconda
José Filippi: bassu
Jean Sicurani: bassu
Maxime Vuillamier: bassu
Ceccè Acquaviva: bassu

Sketches of Corsica: the radiant lyric trumpet of Paolo Fresu glides across the massed voices of A Filetta, the singers who are both trailblazers and keepers of tradition in the realm of Corsican polyphony. The ancient and the experimental blend seamlessly in these compositions, several of them written by ensemble founder Jean-Claude Acquaviva, who has directed the singing group for more than 30 years. A powerful showing here also for Italian bandoneon innovator Daniele di Bonaventura, who contributes new music, solos imaginatively, duets with Fresu, and envelops voices and trumpet with an almost orchestral sense of form.

To sample a few tracks please click here: http://player.ecmrecords.com/fresu

You should be able to find this album in fine record stores but for your convenience here is the link to the correct pages on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Mistico-Mediterraneo-Paolo-Fresu/dp/B003UIIUXS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296492928&sr=8-1

ECM Records USA Facebook Page

Dear ECM Fan,
We have started a facebook page for friends of ECM who live in the USA. It is a place where you will be able find info on album release dates, tour activity, see artist photos and covers, and also hear sneak peeks from albums that are already out in Europe.


Check it out, and please share this news with all your facebook contacts.

Here’s the link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ECM-Records-USA/162880150429468