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This pages are about ECM label music, which I am collecting for many years. It is now more than 1000 titles which are already on my shelf and almost every week there are new ones added. This records that I own and know are marked as Home Library in ECM Catalog section and they are also described in details. On the pages there are many hyperlinks, which I very like as it allows to have kind of journey in ECM world - e.g what is the music, which has been created by specific person, who else was playing with him/her, what are the records of this co-musicians etc. You can also find more info about musicians and composers from external sources, hence this is very live and most-up-to-date ECM repository.

Some introduction about ECM...
Throughout its 50-year history, ECM Records has built a reputation as one of the most imaginative and creative independent record companies. For many music lovers - as pointed out by "The Village Voice" - ECM has become more of a "genre than a label", albeit a genre made of music coming from various sources. The consistently high quality of ECM's production is legendary, and its music and accompanying artwork have become the subject of books, films, and exhibitions around the world.
ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) was founded in Munich by producer Manfred Eicher and Karl Egger in 1969, and from the very beginning it paid great attention to improvisation. The first album they produced was titled "Free At Last" by Mal Waldron. Soon, there were also recordings from artists such as Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Don Cherry, John Surman, Terje Rypdal, Egberto Gismonti, Enrico Rava, Ralph Towner, Pat Metheny and many others. At the end of the seventies, the label's repertoire was expanded to include contemporary music with demanding compositions by Steve Reich, "Music for 18 Musicians" and "Dolmen Music" by Meredith Monk.
 
In 1984, the ECM New Series project was launched with the release of Arvo Pärt's revolutionary "Tabula Rasa" album. Since then, the New Series has become a broad platform for the entire spectrum of compositions, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Eicher, producing recordings from both ECM genres, won numerous awards as the Producer of the Year in the Classical Music category and the Producer of the Year in the Jazz Music category. The label itself has also won international awards in both categories.
Among the composers whose recordings are regularly released as part of the New Series ECM include - in addition to Pärt - György Kurtág, Valentin Silvestrov, Tigran Mansurian, Giya Kancheli, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Heinz Holliger, Heiner Goebbels, Helena Tulve and Eleni Karaindrou. New Series musicians include Sir András Schiff, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer, Dennis Russell Davies, Tõnu Kaljuste, Thomas Demenga, Anja Lechner, Rolf Lislevand, Carolin Widmann, Hilliard Ensemble, Trio Mediaeval, John Potter, Alexei Lubimov, Momo Kodama, Anna Gourari, John Holloway, Michelle Makarski and Duo Gazzana. As part of the New Series, poetry interpreted by Bruno Ganz and Christian Reiner were also recorded.


 
One of the achievements of ECM is bringing together artists from different musical worlds, which gives remarkable results. The collaboration of Keith Jarrett and Gidon Kremer resulted in the best interpretation of Fratres Pärt's compositions so far. The combination of saxophonist Jan Garbarek and Hilliard Ensemble on "Officium" translated into artistic and commercial success and led to twenty years of joint concert tours. In 2017, we witnessed another intercultural collaboration, this time between Tunisian oudzist Anouar Brahem and jazz musicians Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Django Bates on "Blue Maqams".
 


New generations of listeners of music produced by ECM grow up. Albums of second and third generation European artists are being recorded, including Trygve Seim, Jakob Bro, Mathias Eick, Nik Bärtsch, Marcin Wasilewski, Colin Vallon, Thomas Strønen, Tord Gustavsen, Julia Hülsmann, Giovanni Guidi, Mette Henriette and others.
The label also continues to document the work of creative musicians operating in the United States such as Vijay Iyer, David Virelles, Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Tim Berne, Mark Turner, Ches Smith, David Torn, Mat Maneri and many others. The work goes on.....
(http://www.muzyczneabc.pl)

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