Everything about Ecm Records totally explained
ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is a
record label founded in
Munich,
Germany in
1969 by
Manfred Eicher. ECM is best known for
jazz music, but has released a wide variety of recordings, the artists associated with it often refusing to acknowledge boundaries between genres. ECM's motto is "The Most Beautiful Sound Next To Silence", a phrase taken from a 1971 review of ECM releases in
Coda, a Canadian music magazine.
(External Link
)
Eicher has continued to take an active interest in the music released by the label, acting as
producer on most of its recordings. The typical ECM session is just three days — two days to record, one day to mix. Manfred Eicher, in general, dislikes
overdubbing. Most of the records have been recorded with Jan Erik Kongshaug (of Talent Studios and later Rainbow Studios) in Oslo, Norway as sound engineer.
ECM initially concentrated on
jazz, releasing records by artists including
pianists Keith Jarrett,
Chick Corea,
Paul Bley, and
Art Lande;
saxophonist Jan Garbarek,
vibraphone player
Gary Burton;
drummers
Jon Christensen and
Paul Motian;
guitarists
Pat Metheny,
John Abercrombie,
Ralph Towner and
Terje Rypdal;
bassists Eberhard Weber,
Charlie Haden and
Dave Holland; and the
Art Ensemble of Chicago. Many of the label's early recordings shared a certain common aesthetic framework, including a crisply nuanced recording sound, repertoire consisting mostly of original compositions by the artists, most of which didn't "swing" in the conventional sense, and often stark and minimalist photographic cover art. Some detractors characterized the sound as "cold" and the music, and presentation, as "Eurocentric". Others have credited the label's early esthetic approach as a precursor, for better or worse, of the "
New Age music" movement.
There is a clear link between some ECM recordings and
World Music, especially the folk recordings by Jan Garbarek and the work of
Steve Tibbetts and
Stephan Micus. Other examples of ECM's world music are records by Codona,
Tunisian
oud musician
Anouar Brahem,
Indian
violinist
L. Shankar and
Brazilian percussionist
Nana Vasconcelos.
The ECM New Series was created in the 1980s to concentrate on classical works — it has released work by various composers, from the early (such as
Thomas Tallis) to the contemporary (such as
Arvo Pärt and
Steve Reich). Keith Jarrett, better known as a jazz musician, has recorded several classical works by
Bach,
Mozart,
Shostakovich, and others, for the New Series. Several works by the filmmaker
Jean-Luc Godard are on the ECM New Series label.
On many releases, the jazz and classical sides of ECM are combined: for example, Garbarek's
Officium (1994) features him playing saxophone solos over the
Hilliard Ensemble singing
Gregorian chant, early
polyphony and
Renaissance works. Garbarek's work with guitarist Ralph Towner draws on, and is as apparently influenced by, 20th century chamber music as by any overtly "jazz" material. John Potter of the Hilliard Ensemble has recorded works by
John Dowland with jazz saxophonist
John Surman and others, and Surman's
Proverbs and Songs is a suite of choral settings of
Old Testament texts, recorded in
Salisbury Cathedral. The label has also released unique works that fit into no obvious genre at all (like the records of
Meredith Monk).
In 2002 and 2004 ECM released a series of compilation CDs entitled
:rarum. Twenty of the label's artists were asked to compile a single CD of their work for the label (Garbarek and Jarrett's compilations are double CDs). Artists who contributed to this series are
Keith Jarrett,
Jan Garbarek,
Chick Corea,
Gary Burton,
Bill Frisell,
Art Ensemble of Chicago,
Terje Rypdal,
Bobo Stenson,
Pat Metheny,
Dave Holland,
Egberto Gismonti,
Jack DeJohnette,
John Surman,
John Abercrombie,
Carla Bley,
Paul Motian,
Tomasz Stanko,
Eberhard Weber,
Arild Andersen,
Jon Christensen.
Distribution
The label has been distributed in the USA by
Polydor Records,
PolyGram,
Warner Bros. Records, and
BMG, and is now distributed by
Universal Music.
Books about ECM
- Sleeves of Desire: A Cover Story ed. Lars Müller Publishers ISBN 978-3906700854 1996
- Horizons Touched: The Music Of ECM ed. Steve Lake and Paul Griffiths Granta Books ISBN 978-1862078802 2007
Location
Munich-Graefelfing (near the highway exit, above the ProMark shop)
Previous location; Munich-Pasing
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ecm Records'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://ecm__record_label.totallyexplained.com">ECM (record label) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
