17.11.2023 | New Release
2023 saw many additions to ECM’s vinyl catalogue. Earlier this year, the highly acclaimend Luminessence series of reissues and released new LPs by Bobo Stenson Trio, Ralph Alessi Quartet, Ralph Towner and Joe Lovano. Today, we add six more albums to our ever growing vinyl catalogue.
Expanding the label’s deep vinyl catalogue are John Scofields’s brand-new trio double-LP Uncle John’s Band, Maciej Obara’s third quartet recording for the label Frozen Silence, Wolfgang Muthspiel’s second trio date with Scott Colley and Brian Blade Dance Of The Elders, as well as Nils Okland and Sigjbjorn Apeland’s Glimmer, the Arild Anderson Group-record Affirmation and Stephan Micus’s Thunder.
An artfully hip trio set including a harmonically delicious ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, plenty of bass-walking fast bop like Scofield’s own ‘How Deep’, and ‘Birth of the Cool’s ‘Budo’, plus several originals infused with the guitarist’s telltale laconic lyricism. – John Fordham, The Guardian
What a trio this is. Colley and Blade, who made Angular Blues with him five years ago, are effortlessly musical. Together they have something of the empathy of the Bill Evans trio […] The synthesis matters more than the elements, and the synthesis here is hugely confident and successful. – Brian Morton, Downbeat
A nourishing, wholesome record. – Hugh Morris, Jazzwise
Frozen Silence is the quartet’s third release for ECM, and to my mind probably their best yet. […] a freer attitude optimising the strength and feeling in the music being recorded. – Mike Gates, UK Vibe
The combination of fiddle and harmonium is far from limited in terms of tonal and textural variety: there is an airy delicacy here, but also a granite-like solidity; radiant sunlight as well as brooding darkness, and many shades between. In other words, the music feels elemental, timeless; its virtues derive less from ornamentation than from a kind of pared-back purity, a focus on essentials. […] an album of rare honesty and beauty. – Geoff Andrew, Notes & Observations
Lingering sax phrases echo through spectral soundscapes, or take on edge and urgency before settling into a luscious, ballad-like conclusion, all threaded through with Andersen’s majestic, ever-authoritative bass. – Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman
A rather sharply plotted musical excursion that keeps reimagining the limits of improvised world sounds. Micus, […] plays 14 instruments here, and forges homogeneous stylistic paths in innovative ways over the course of nine tracks. – Filipe Freitas, Jazz Trail
