Taking Sides: Windham Hill vs ECM (a poll)

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