New Arrivals
Arcanum
The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of directions in music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. They’ve played together in many permutations over the years, but this is their first album as a quartet. Compositions by Anders Jormin and Trygve Seim, the Finnish traditional “Armon Lapset” (Children of Mercy), and Jormin’s arrangement of Ornette Coleman’s “What Reason Could I Give” are slotted into a programm…
Drifting
After Mette Henriette’s critically acclaimed, self-titled first recording comes Drifting – and album pervaded by trio conversations of idiosyncratic and original expression. With Johan Lindvall returning on piano, new addition Judith Hamann on cello and herself on saxophone, Mette’s chamber musical elaborations prove of a concentrated and exploratory quality, marked by subtle yet intense interaction. Motifs and recurring patterns crystallize and reveal a concise, intricate narrative. The saxopho…
Relations
Musical messages from Oslo, New York, Basel and Lugano – recorded between 2018 and 2022 – are juxtaposed and recombined on an absorbing recording that features Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen solo and in a series of duets . With such partners as Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland and Jorge Rossy, the musical frame of reference is very broad. Elements from Langeland’s’s archaic-sounding folk to Potter’s post-Coltrane saxophone and Taborn’s whirlwind modernist piano each find their p…
Cry! Tender
Although his main instruments were the tenor saxophone and the flute, Yusef Lateef was known for his innovative blending of jazz with Asian music. In addition to the oboe and bassoon (which are both unusual in jazz), he played various instruments. Lateef began recording as a leader in 1957 for Savoy Records, a non-exclusive association that continued until 1959. The earliest ofhis albums for the Prestige subsidiary New Jazz overlap his Savoy Recordings. Cry!-Tender was one of these early albums …
Mingus Plays Piano
One of Mingus' most straightforwardly beautiful recordings, there is a meditative calm found in Mingus' piano work, touching on shades of Debussy, Satie, Bill Evans, and Duke Ellington. There's no showboating, and not an ounce of amateurism considering Mingus was primarily known as a bassist. Making its way through standards, original compositions, and the blues, Mingus Plays Piano is a true document of the man's inherent musical genius, and a crucial LP for anyone wishing to dig a little deeper…
East Coasting
Recorded in 1957 this is one of Charles Mingus's lesser known sessions. Here the master was at the head of an awesome band including some of his regular sidemen. Jimmy Knepper - trombone, Shafi Hadi - alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and Dannie Richmond - drums, along with nothing but Bill Evans on piano! This is dense, lyrical and very stimulating music deeply rooted in the bop tradition yet with an open ear to other sound territories.
Tomorrow Is The Question!
This was definitely a perfect title for Ornette Coleman's second and last album for Contemporary before switching on Ertegun's Atlantic label. Originally released in 1959 "Tomorrow is the Question" was an early evident step towards the revolution to come. An adventurous yet accessible, bluesy album with Coleman and Don Cherry tasting for the first time the freedom of a pianoless rhythm section featuring Percy Heath or Red Mitchell on bass and the great Shelly Manne on drums.
Cymbalism
A legendary album by one of the masters of modern jazz drumming! Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in 1963, Cymbalism is among the albums Roy Haynes provided for Prestige's New Jazz series. This session features the drummer leading an acoustic quartet with Frank Strozier (alto sax, flute) Ronnie Mathews (piano) and Larry Ridley (bass). An unpredictable Hard Bop-Post Bop transitional album with different colors and moods. From the primary influence of Charlie Parker through a kind of expanded sound ins…
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead is the debut album by American jazz musician Ken McIntyre, recorded with fellow alto saxophonist Eric Dolphy in 1960 and released on the New Jazz label in January 1961. From the beginning Mr. McIntyre considered himself part of the avant-garde or ''new thing'' movement in jazz, as spearheaded by musicians like Ornette Coleman, Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor, although his own music was considerably more traditionally melodic than theirs. He played a whole fleet of reed instruments, inc…
Coltrane Plays The Blues
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Released by Atlantic in 1962 from earlier sessions, "Coltrane Plays the Blues" showcases the quartet’s innovative blend of blues, jazz, and avant-garde, earning cult status and critical acclaim.
Jazz Composers Workshop
Charlie Mingus’s 1956 Jazz Composers Workshop showcases his visionary blend of hard bop, classical, gospel, and avant-garde. The album captures Mingus’s restless innovation—by turns explosive, tender, and genre-defying.
The World At Minds End
Formed in Bristol in 1974, Skywhale blended prog-rock and jazz rock with melodic, energetic instrumentals. Their 1977 album, The World At Mind’s End, showcases virtuoso musicianship and Canterbury influences.
Friendship
*100 copies ultra limited edition! 2025 repress* Junipher Greene was a Norwegian progressive rock band, who were formed in Oslo in 1967. When they released their historic debut album Friendship (called a "milestone" in European progressive rock") in 1971 they became the first Norwegian band ever to release a double LP. These 18 tracks, characterized by their incisive guitar solos, prominent flute and excellent songwriting, are progressive rock at its very best. One of the Genre's true masterwo…
Ornette On Tenor
Ornette Coleman’s "Ornette On Tenor" marks a pivotal moment in jazz, featuring his switch to tenor sax and the addition of Jimmy Garrison on bass. The album’s earthy, darker soundscape, collective improvisation, and absence of fixed themes highlight Coleman’s ongoing musical revolution.
Amoroso
When this album landed on the turntables in 1977, João Gilberto, the Nestor and father of bossa nova, had long enjoyed praise for his life’s work which was still far from complete. His straightforward, sometimes dry and rasping voice sounds out distinctively in the mezzo piano and forges his totally unique and personal style of playing Latin jazz with international appeal. With "Wave", "Triste", "Caminhos Cruzados" and "Zingaro" he brings together on this LP four splendid numbers by his congenia…
Telepathic Fish: Trawling The Early 90s Ambient Underground
The first-ever illustrated compendium recounting the seminal underground South London ambient party that surfaced at the axis through which the likes of Ninja Tune, Warp and Rising High flowed. Telepathic Fish shared fertile waters with Megatripolis and The Big Chill, moving the early 90s London back room chill-out space into the kaleidoscopic spotlight. Documenting the sights and sounds of South London’s seminal Telepathic Fish ambient parties. Hosted by Chantal Passamonte (aka Mira Calix – RIP…
Fiat Lux
“Creative collaboration could lead to tension or disagreements, but here it’s all about freedom, joy, and acceptance. Deeply rooted in respect and love. And that radiates through the music. I lived the process, but I hope people will feel that vibe.”
— Robbie Kuster
Anthology Of Experimental Music From Australia
*100 copies limited edition* For over a decade, the Sound Mapping series has traced the evolving landscapes of experimental music across the globe. This chapter turns its ear to Australia, a continent whose sonic expressions are as vast, isolated, and idiosyncratic as its geography. The artists featured in this compilation explore a wide terrain of auditory possibilities, from shimmering drones and granular textures to fractured electronics and abstract field manipulations. There’s a rawness her…
For Jack
For Jack was written in 2024 for pianist Jack Yarbrough. I was inspired by Jack’s many performances of my music; how he approaches my soundworld with a beauty of touch and an attention to pacing. This piece is approximately 50 minutes long and, with a few exceptions, it is extremely quiet and spacious. Many thanks to Jack for asking me to write this piece and for playing it so beautifully.
Jack Yarbrough is a pianist working in the fields of contemporary and experimental music. Largely devoted t…
Ascending Music
The pieces brought together here were assembled as the fruit of collaboration undertaken by Falzone and Evans-Weiler. Instrumentation is the strongly unifying element. The reed organ, once ubiquitous in the private music setting of the home as well as a default practice instrument for organists, is now regarded as something of a relic of the past. However, the instrument continues to afford certain distinct advantages, particularly with regard to dynamic variation by virtue of the player’s direc…