Taking Sides: Windham Hill vs ECM (a poll)

i voted "both are bullshit"

not because i think both are really bullshit. both are fine in their own way. for me they each epitomize the idea label where for every 1 good release you're going to have 20 pretty boring ones.

i can name maybe five releases from each label i really truly love and the rest is pretty boring to me. i guess the really bad windham hill stuff is worse than the really bad ECM stuff but that's not how i tend to think of polls, i tend to think about whether the best stuff from ECM is better than the best stuff from windham hill, and i think the best from each are about equal. so that's that.

I'm with ya on the ratio. Almost every time I buy something from either label and it's great, I go on a binge and it's always diminishing returns. I don't know why I never remember this phenomenon before I'm three "super rare Windham Hill LP Lot George Benson Shadowfax New Age look!" eBay impulse purchases in.

I may vote ECM but I wanna hear some compelling evidence for both sides first. I think I listen to the ECM albums I love more than I do the Windham Hill albums I love, whatever that's worth. But I probably haven't heard even 10% of either label's total output.

can't think of any Windham Hill records i love, but there are plenty of ECM ones, and i have the impression that there are lots of overlooked jewels there that i should check out someday.

now that i think about it a little more, i realize the only windham hill records i actually like are the first couple alex degrassi / george winston / william ackerman releases. degrassi's "slow circle" is a particular fave of mine.

i find a much broader range of ECM stuff acceptable, but i "love" very little of it.

i think the only ECM recordings i really love are gismonti / haden "in montreal", jarrett / dejohnette "ruta and daitya" and maupin's "jewel in the lotus". most everything else i've heard has left me cold. but god there is so much of it. they're pushing what, 1500 releases?

ecm for me. I am not really crazy about many of their records, but I find a lot of their output enjoyable. e.g. I will listen to a random jan garbarek or bobo stenson album and enjoy it.

yeah if you throw a dart at both catalogs i think you're much more likely to hit something listenable on ECM - it will probably put you to sleep though

it's funny, i just found some old posts of mine on the ECM thread where i complain about "in montreal" and "ruta and daitya", but those albums have really stuck with me through the years

i hoped for but did not actually expect the wiki to have a complete discography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ECM_Records_albums

man the ECM quality to bullshit ratio is skewed highly in favor of quality to my ears. and their aesthetic is rad: this attention to place, to the specifics of a given recording...just cool as hell. I have some Windham Hill stuff I enjoy but I don't really care about Windham Hill, but I consider ECM a phenomenon & a big plus to the world of music generally.

admittedly I'm a huge Keith Jarrett fiend and ECM has nobody even anywhere near his level in my view so grain o' salt etc

their aesthetic is rad: this attention to place, to the specifics of a given recording

it's funny you say that because to me a lot of it sounds really samey!

i am aware of Windham Hill but don't know many of their releases at all, otoh i love a bunch of ECM stuff and can't think of anything on there i actively hate

saminess and hyper-focused aesthetics are things i like a lot tho tbf

i used to work for a company that produced windham hill holiday radio specials, and i had to master them to DAT ... so, basically i'd vote for like poop on a stick over windham hill

lolllll both at post & at mastering to DAT

tough call but I have to go with windham hill cuz they released the michael hedges albums which changed the way I saw the acoustic guitar

Where's the "I love both" option? Total dud on this poll.

The only 'Hill artist I can name is Hedges. Who is pretty great. On the EKG side I think had a Bach fugue by a chamber quartet.

I doubt there are many who are well versed enough in both to give an informed opinion.

That said, 'Hill.

ECM, that is. Sorry, I'm drinking : )

My stepdad had one of the Hill winter samplers but I was only 12 or so at the time so can't assume my assessment is accurate, but it was pretty alright.

http://img.emuleday.com/data/img/6e/6e249981837679e2a2c0ede3efe97cab.jpg

man the ECM quality to bullshit ratio is skewed highly in favor of quality to my ears. and their aesthetic is rad: this attention to place, to the specifics of a given recording...just cool as hell.

ECM for sure, for Manfred Eicher's recording quality and Jarrett overall. Then again, I haven't heard Shadowfax since living with my dad in high school.

I gotta say, I love that Winter's Solstice album cover

windham hill

it's not that I hate it but windham hill just seems overwhelmingly incorrect to me, it puts me off digging deeper

ECM for that Holland Braxton Rivers Altschul "conference of the birds" album, that record is amazing

and windham hill for those Michael Hedges records, those are great

I might be atypical in that the overwhelming majority of the ECM discs I have are from that New Series; stuff that ends up filed uncontroversially in the classical section of record emporiums. Never noticed Windham Hill straying all that often into comparable territory, so...

it's funny you say that because to me a lot of it sounds really samey!

well Eicher is or was overseeing everything. he's the producer on many ECM records (most I think). it's my understanding anyway that with a lot of records he picks a location to record for the artist, like he's strokin' his chin goin' "ahh yes, I know a church in Switzerland, amazing acoustics for the Tigran Mansurian project"

I'm a sucker for that kinda thing

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Windham Hill has nothing comparable to the ECM New Series (Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, Meredith Monk, John Adams, Gavin Bryars, Hilliard Ensemble, Heiner Goebbels et al), or non-Western composers (Anouar Brahem, Manu Katché, the Jon Balke/Amina Alaoui). Even the improv is more interesting (I love Nik Bärtsch's Ronin - Swiss polyrhythmic minimalism). It isn't all Norwegian saxophonists serenading the the rising sun.

ecm by light years.

Somehow I've never heard a single Windham Hill release! Not familiar with that much ECM stuff either but they've released some things I really like - Köln Concert, Tabula Rasa, Dolmen Music, Conference of the Birds, Music for 18 Musicians - so they win by default.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Kinda saw that coming.

Norwegian saxophonists serenading the rising sun

put this on a hype sticker and I will buy it every time