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

On January 25th, ECM released two new albums:


Giya Kancheli
Themes From The Songbook

Dino Saluzzi: bandoneon
Gidon Kremer: violin
Andrey Pushkerev: vibraphone


A very special album for Giya Kancheli’s 75th birthday... When starting out on his career as a creator of symphonic and chamber music, the Georgian composer also wrote much incidental music for the theatre and the cinema. Though still little-known in the West, the film music was widely heard across the former Soviet Union and the themes here (there are 20 on the album) enjoyed great popularity.

ECM decided to invite Dino Saluzzi to revisit Kancheli’s music for stage and screen, in his personal and highly creative way. Simultaneously Gidon Kremer, an old friend and champion of Kancheli’s music, also expressed an interest in doing something special for Giya’s birthday. With both Kremer and Saluzzi on board, the project took on new dimensions. Finding links between the worlds – Kancheli’s, Kremer’s, and Saluzzi’s - is a task adroitly handled by Pushkarev. The vibraphonist, who works often with Kremerata Baltica, prepared arrangements realized with Kremer in Riga, and also worked in Oslo with Saluzzi, intuitively supporting Dino’s very relaxed approach to the material.

Nine of the featured themes derive from Kancheli’s collaborations with internationally acclaimed theatre director Robert Sturua. There are also themes from films by Revaz Chkeidze, Sergei Bodrov, Revaz Gabriadze, Lana Gogoberidze and others.

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


Erkki-Sven Tüür
Strata
Symphony No. 6
“Noesis“– Concerto for Violin and Clarinet

Carolin Widmann: violin
Jörg Widmann: clarinet
Nordic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anu Tali

“My pieces are abstract dramas in sound, with individual characters and an extremely dynamic chain of events; unfolding in a space that is constantly shifting, expanding and contracting.” Thus Erkki-Sven Tüür, characterizing his highly energetic recent works, and his new “vectorial” approach to writing music. The fifth New Series release dedicated exclusively to music by the Estonian composer presents world premiere recordings of two large-scale pieces for orchestral forces.

“Strata” and “Noёsis” are played by the Tallinn-based Nordic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of charismatic Estonian conductor Anu Tali. Both orchestra and conductor make their New Series debuts here. Gifted siblings Jörg and Carolin Widmann are the soloists on “Noёsis”. While Carolin has won unanimous critical acclaim for her renderings of Robert Schumann’s violin sonatas and for her 20th-century music recital “Phantasy of Spring”, Jörg Widmann counts among the pre-eminent young composers of our time, as well as one of the finest contemporary clarinetists.

Upcoming performances of music by Erkki-Sven Tüür in USA:
February 24, 25, 26 & March 1 – New York, NY - NY Philharmonic with Paavo Järvi conducting NY premiere of “Aditus”
http://nyphil.org/attend/season/index.cfm?page=eventDetail&eventNum=2105&performanceNum=3532&seasonNum=10&mI=0&sI=0

February 24 – Washington, DC - Portrait Concert with New Tallinn Trio at the Phillips Collection
http://www.phillipscollection.org/programs/music/2010-11.aspx

May 13 & 14 – Cincinnati, OH – NA premiere of piano concerto w/ Awadagin Pratt / Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Paavo Järvi conducting
http://cincinnatisymphony.org/Content.php?id=230


Starting January 25th, 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 pre-order:
Giya Kancheli: http://www.amazon.com/Themes-Songbook-Giya-Kancheli/dp/B003T2OX8G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1294672906&sr=8-1
Erkki-Sven Tüür: http://www.amazon.com/T%C3%BC%C3%BCr-Strata-J%C3%B6rg-Widmann/dp/B0038QGXIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1294673113&sr=1-1

Manfred Eicher appearing in NYC - open to the public

Don’t miss a rare opportunity to hear Manfred Eicher (Producer and Founder of ECM Records)
in conversation with Gary Giddins (critic /author)

November 19th, Thursday, 6:30pm
Proshansky Auditorium
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Ave (at 34th St)
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. NO RESERVATIONS.
Information: 212/817.2005

http://centerforthehumanitiesgc.org/calendar/details/37-jazz-legacies

Manfred Eicher founded ECM Records in 1969 specifically aiming to record jazz with great attention to sonic detail. Now 40 years later, the ECM catalog contains well over a thousand recordings of jazz, classical and world music from around the globe. The imprint is known for not only for the stellar musicianship of its roster and the clear, rich recorded sound, but also for remarkable artwork and graphics.
Gary Giddins is a critic and author widely recognized as a leading voice in jazz criticism.

Carla Bley – Carla’s Christmas Carols.

On November 3rd, ECM released its very first CD of Christmas music! Carla Bley, one of jazz’s greatest arrangers, turns her attention this time to a delightful collection of traditional and non-traditional seasonal fare which she’s titled: Carla’s Christmas Carols

Christmas music has been an enthusiasm of Carla Bley’s for decades, and the pieces she has chosen here are subjected to her offbeat wit and idiosyncratic arranging skills. Selections include “O Tannenbaum”, “Away In A Manger”, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, “Jingle Bells”, “O Holy Night” and “Joy To the World”, plus Mel Tormé’s "The Christmas Song” and a brace of Carla’s own pieces – “Jesus Maria” (first recorded by Jimmy Giuffre back in 1961), and, giving the devil his due, “Hell’s Bells”.

You should be able to find this album in fine record stores but for your convenience click here to be linked to the correct page on Amazon.com