ECM & ECM New Series Records Thread

I can't be the only fan of ECM Records, can I?

In case you are not familiar with the label, ECM stands for Edition of Contemporary Music and was founded by German musicians in the late 60's. It is now known for featuring some of the most talented writers in Jazz and Classical.
Mostly all records consists of Solos, Duets, Trios and Quartets. Orchestral works are very rare.

This is a very audiophile label with top of the line sound quality. Some records might not be easy to get into. A lot that's released by ECM is experimental, minimalistic or melancholic. Nevertheless, ECM consistently grabs a Record Label of the Year award by Down Beat, JazzWeek, Jazz Journalists Association or MIDEM.
All the album arts are a bit too artistic for my taste. A lot of black and white photography with high noise or motion blur, emptiness, desaturated colors, etc.

ECM does not partake in any streaming services and I doubt that will change anytime soon. The customer base is very loyal and I am more and more growing into it as well.

The New Series (not so new anymore, actually) handles the more Classical records, the traditional ECM is the Jazz category, although I am sure ECM does not want me to simply categorize any record as Jazz or Classical as all genres blend in the true form of expressionistic music.
Some of the most famous artists are probably Keith Jarrett (pianist) and Jan Garbarek (saxophonist).

I hope this thread can serve as a meeting point for connoisseurs of sophisticated music ;-) and audiophiles alike. What are your favorite albums that you want to share?

 

So many. Among the more recent ones are Tomasz Stańko Quartet's Lontano; John Abercrombie Quartet's The First Quartet package (remaster & reissue); and my all-time fave of the take of "Jack In" on Jack DeJohnette's Rarum XII/Selected Recordings.

 

My favorite label. New and fresh, always pushing the boundaries of 'classical' and 'jazz', and impeccable recording values.

Two of my favorite albums for evaluating gears is "Dave Holland: Live at Birdland" and "Manu Katche: Neighbourhood".

 

I have enjoyed many ECM albums. I liked Manfred Eicher's production style and their choice of artists. I would often buy an album just because it was on ECM and could count on enjoying the music. I got most of them in the 1970s. As far as surface noise, the American pressings were hit or miss and the German pressings were almost uniformly excellent. At some point in the 1980s, they started turning up pretty regularly in the cut-out bins.

I look forward to revisiting my ECM LP collection when I am in a position to set my turntable up again.

 

Cloud Dance featuring Colin Walcott on sitar with John Abercrombie, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette is one of my favorite modern jazz albums...

 

Totally agree, ECM is a gem. Aaron Parks, Charles Lloyd, Dave Holland, Eberhard Weber, Nils Petter M, so much great stuff. As close to a blind purchase label as I can think of.

 

One of my top favourite labels.
Some of my top likes:

ECM:
- Garbarek: Mnemosyne and Officium (spiritual flavour, both with Hilliard Ensemble choir); Rites
- Ghazal (eastern + persian inspired, all their songs are very similar, 1 of their CD´s is enough) : The Rain
- Anouar Brahem: Le Voyage De Sahar, Thimar (transcultural jazz with Tunesian oud as fascinating instrument)
- Stephan Micus (experimental, influences of World, New Age and Jazz. Stephan Micus created his own unique style): Athos; Life; Snow
- John Surman: Private City, Road to St Ives (beautiful solo multi-instrumental albums, mostly saxophone)
- Tord Gustavsen Trio (nordic Jazz, slow, lot´s of atmosphere): The Ground
- Keith Jarrett: Changeless; The Köln Concert

ECM NEW SERIES:
- Arvo Pärt (contemporary religious classical): Miserere, Tabula Rasa
- Gidon Kremer: Schubert / String Quartet #15

 

Let us not forget this little gem



I was in college when this came out. My cans were the then groundbreaking Stax Sigmas. A friend put the vinyl on my Denon turntable and said "listen to this". I was astounded; it took jazz fusion to a whole new... DIMENSION.

 

These are some songs that I have stuck in my head right now, that I have been playing over and over again in the last weeks:

Ketil Bjørnstad - La Notte, Pt. II
That melody shivers down my spine every time. Full of emotions.

Bobo Stenson Trio - Don's Kora Song
Almost hypnotizing and soothing tune.

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin - Modul 39_8
For those that like high dynamics. Category: "wait for it"

Manu Katché - Beats & Bounce
Almost unexpectedly mainstream composition. I'd say it's danceable.

 

@k.e. - Thanks for the list. I have not been keeping up with ECM. I'm going to give these a try.

 

Wow,ECM Records!Ireally like their jazz recording(although I'm not familiar with jazz at all)
Have the koln concert album,wondering other concerts played by Keith Jarrett is good or not?
And I really like Schiff's play published by ECM...

 

Great list!

 

Not ECM, but could easily be.
One of my favourite dicoveries lately:

 

i bought the entire cd catalogue in 2010, since 2010, i bought every subsequently title digitally. ecm and blue note (1949-1980) are the two labels that i am complete or more or less complete in collecting. When the gfc happened, i sold most of my blue notes, i still have all digitised, but that was a loss, esp the LPs.

anyway, a recent favourite ecm title of mine is Lumen Drones (ecm 2434)

 

+1 for Lumen Drones. Wonderful album.

 

another ecm deep cut, makrofauna by vilde&inga ecm 2371

 

I like ECM a lot. Most picks here are from jazz, which I listen to often, but the ECM selection in classical is very impressive as well. I have many of their CDs but ECM is also in a separate category on Tidal in classical and jazz. They have some big names like Andras Schiff, Gideon Kramer, and many excellent recordings by less known artists.
But ECM is getting uncomfortably close to UMG and can be suspected of watermarking streamed and downloaded tracks.