ECM: C/D, S&D

Listening to ECM on Spotify seems totally at odds with the experience of actually listening to an ECM album but that's just me

there are a lot of them, and I only own a tiny fraction

to help make up for this I just snapped up a Ralph Towner vinyl 4 pack of Solstice, Matchbook, Diary, and Sargasso Sea for $30 off ebay.

Sargasso Sea is a really good one! I like Batik a lot, too. Never heard Diary or Matchbook.

I think I'm lapsing into full on WeberMania. In the last couple of days I've checked out 'Later That Evening', 'Little Movements', 'Passengers' & 'Fluid Rustle', all new to me, all of which have been good to great IMO. His sense of space and his overall tone really appeal to me.

His tone is a mystery to me. Sounds so much like a fretless bass a lot of the time. Much louder and sharper than most upright basses. I suppose a lot of that comes from amplification, but it is very unusual.

welcome to the club, sparkle. his music is wondrous and highly rewarding.

re: his tone — i've long suspected he used some subtle modulation effect of some sort. definitely not a flanger or phaser, but the jc-120 (the first instance of chorus that i know of) didn't get released until 1975. would be very curious to know, as well.

https://www.ecmrecords.com/shop/1580224264

Accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier (who was in some ace Brahem bands) with classical guitarist Seddeki on a virtuosic but still retaining some sense of looseness and soulfulness sort of nice album!

If I posted about every ECM discovery during Covid times, I’d need my own thread. And yet, a big thanks to those who mentioned Steve Tibbetts above. I managed to pick up a cheap copy of “Exploded View” and, wow, I wasn’t expecting that. Noisy, feedback-drenched guitar, tribal drums and tape experimentation. Another intriguing dimension of the label to explore.

cycled over to a 2nd hand record store yesterday... first vinyl purchase in months was a cheap copy of Ecotopia by Oregon.
it's a weird one... the two longest tracks are synth drenched and sort of messy... and i'm guessing the reasons why this LP has some bad reviews, everything that surrounds them is much much better. regardless of those 2 synth fests, as per usual everything is so beautifully recorded it doesn't really matter too much? for me, that element + amazing typography and design is the ECM trick for selling me even their shittier lps...

After devouring a steady diet of Weber over the last few months, I've come upon several Pat Metheny LPs lately and have been nuts about them. I tried listening to this stuff 20+ years ago and it all sounded too squishy for me, but now that I'm more squishy it sounds perfect. I can't believe I slept on 'As Falls Wichita' for as long as I did. I think I listened to the title cut half a dozen times in a row. I picked up the first Group LP, along with Offramp and Watercolors as well, all of which I'm crazy about. The synth stuff is perfection imo. Funny that I'm just digging this at this late date but I am who I am.

The ECM album I've been playing the most lately is Ralph Towner - Solstice. Especially love the track "Nimbus". Also a good album to check out for all you Weber heads.

I realized I had that one in my Discogs store inventory and after a few spins, delisted it. It's really good.

I managed to pick up a cheap copy of “Exploded View

nice. i highly recommend safe journey or northern song next. or yr.

or, you know, the entire catalogue. whatever.

The ECM album I've been playing the most lately is Ralph Towner - Solstice

Towner is among the most underrated ECM mainstays imo. I love Batik too, especially 'Waterwheel'.

The 4 Towner albums I picked up on Ebay are all front to back great

I got the '78 Metheny Group for next to nothing and it has been one of my 'jigsaw puzzle' soundtracks of lockdown. I don't doubt for a second, despite how fucked up things have been, that I'll look back at this - and the album - as a golden period.

'78 Metheny Group

listening now and damn. also my friends would murder me if I played this for them.

is this the "Phase Dance" one? It was really famous, but I've never been able to really get into this one.

That's the one. Seemed really appealing on a first playthrough.

Listening to Batik again and DeJohnette's solo on the title track is pure *chef's kiss*.

As is Eddie Gómez's bowed double bass playing.

xp It is the Phase Dance one! The whole album is gorgeous.

This is specific and probably obsessive, but ever since the quarantining started, the first album I listen to every day has been Tibbetts' <i>Northern Songs</i> - sometimes just side two, sometimes the whole thing. I found this interview about the making of the album, where Tibbetts talks about having other loops and sounds that he wanted to add to the album and I'm personally glad it didn't work out for them:

<a href="https://www.allaboutjazz.com/steve-tibbetts-northern-song-and-the-sounds-of-silence-steve-tibbetts-by-rob-caldwell.php";>https://www.allaboutjazz.com/steve-tibbetts-northern-song-and-the-sounds-of-silence-steve-tibbetts-by-rob-caldwell.php<;/a>

I've been making a lot of other ECM discoveries but one thing that strikes me is how tight the albums from 60-69 are - I had heard about the legendary first 30 ECM albums or the first 50, but that run from <i>Solstice</i> to <i>Gnu High</i> is almost desert island stuff for me, I've always loved <i>Yellow Fields</i>, I had never even heard <i>Odyssey</i> - if anyone ever asked me where to start with ECM (a question that never comes up), that's where I'd point them.

(Sorry about the formatting fail, I'm rusty)

Odyssey is incredible

i've just put Northern Songs on and my cat has gone full force 100% CHILLED OUT TO THE MAX next to the stereo. magic calming tendencies pumping out of this lp.

i think, when it comes down to it, northern song is probably my favorite tibbetts. but screw picking just one.

I love that Tibbetts record so much. I'm going to need a second lockdown to crawl through the ECM catalogue! Everyone's guidance and remarks here are really helpful. This will be a special listening projects the coming months.

so, back to ralph towner for a sec—

i just checked out his joint venture with gary burton (matchbook) for the first time on the old internet jukebox today and realized i'm an idiot. i could've bought that record for a dollar probably a hundred times when i lived in reno. but oh well, if i had done that i would have spent a hundred dollars and inexplicably have a hundred copies of the album. i mean, it's a great record, but. . .

ECMs I've never heard that I've played in the last couple of days:
Pat Metheny, New Chautauqua & Bright Size Life - liked the really low key stuff the best, otherwise kind of reminded me of the guitar equivalent of a solo Jarrett record. I had heard Bright Size in passing a while ago and thought it was pretty nice sounding. After having gone deep on Pat recently, I wasn't as moved by it as I had expected to be, but it had some uncharacteristic, understated playing by Jaco which I got into.
Rypdal/Vitous/DeJohnette - loved this one
Dave Liebman, Lookout Farm & Drum Ode - I liked about half of each of these. Vocals undid Drum Ode, got a little lost on Lookout Farm, but will revisit both.
Julian Priester, Polarization - I know and adore Love, Love, but had never heard of this one at all. Some funk, some stately tone pieces. Pretty cool as well.
Oregon, Crossing & Ecotopia - the synths on Ecotopia were mentioned as a hazard upthread, but I was ready for them and got into this one. Crossing was better though. I think I need to get into more Oregon.

i tried to get into oregon last year. picked up their first two albums (from the vanguard years, so very early 1970s) and just didn't really dig what i heard. wasn't put off by it, just didn't really stick out much.

i used to be one of those metheny haters, but i've since eased off on that after hearing some of his early work as a sideman. need to check out one of his proper albums.

also, after seeing it on the non-meme ecm instagram (linked earlier upthread), i checked out this bill connors album and whoa! it's really interesting and not very ecm-esque (not in the 'classic' sense anyway). almost seems like it would not be too out of place in the post-fahey thread. really searching, undefined music. p rad.

what i've heard of rypdal has been great. he does get a little riffy and showy in his playing sometimes, but it doesn't really feel out of place. side b of his descendre album is probably among the prettiest music that ecm ever did. definitely one for the "in a similarly silent way" crowd.

Apple music has ECM's entire streaming output organized by decade, which is cool for deciding whether I want to check out some early classics I haven't had a chance to explore yet or go for the digital synth era. I've yet to make it past 1989 with any ECM release, save for listening to more recent Eberhard Weber over the last couple of days. I didn't realize his output dropped off because he'd had a stroke over a decade ago. Biographically, I know quite little about the ECM coterie. Would be a great topic for a documentary.

That Connors is on my list to check out for sure.

Swimming with a Hole in My Body (such an oddly mysterious title) is my fave Connors release for ECM.

Just picked up a lovely pristine copy of Scales by the Manfred Schoof Quintet (on Japo). I already had and appreciated the ECM 2CD collecting most of their material for the label but listening to it with the original sequencing is a much better experience. Some wonderful delicate keyboard work from Jasper Van’T Hof. I’m not aware of these records being much talked about - possibly because Schoof moved away from jazz? But really strong work IMO.

https://shop.new-art.nl/assets/image.php?width=800&image=/content/img/new_products_queue/1443426047.jpg

I simply cannot articulate what a stunning piece of music this is.

A perfect disc, yes, and I'm not even that big a Satie/Cage/Feldman stan.

It is perfect, such a beautiful compilation. There's about a hundred years between Satie and Cage's 'Four', but they sit together like they're meant to.

In the past I've found some of the material François Couturier released under his own name to be a little light on content, but his second album with Anja Lechner, featuring mostly original compositions this time, is really hitting the autumnal spot right now. These two have more chemistry as a duo than as half of a quartet.

jean-louis matinier & kevin seddiki - rivages

^^^
this is another quite beautiful and captivating duo album imo

not sure if Terje Rypdal hits that autumnal spot for everybody but he released his first new album for years last month, sounded p good on my first listen

Yeah, the Rypdal album is fantastic. Reviewed it for The Wire.

Thought this was a cool little piece - Manfred Eicher picks five favourite Blue Note albs:

https://www.wbgo.org/post/field-studies-manfred-eicher-founder-ecm-records-picks-his-top-five-blue-note-albums#stream/0

That's really cool. Thanks for the heads up.

That's a great looking list. The Pete La Roca album is fantastic.

I'm sure I read about it here but can find no mention on the thread. Either way, the live Ghazal album, The Rain makes my hair stand on end.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/The_Rain_%28Ghazal_album%29.jpg

Fantastic cover- I'll look this up.

My two most recent discoveries from the 80s back catalogue are Paul Motian's 'It Should've Happened A Long Time Ago' & Marc Johnson's 'Bass Desires', both from 86-87, both featuring Bill Frisell doing a ton of guitar synth stuff, which I can't get enough of these days.

Ooh, gotta check that out

the live Ghazal album, The Rain makes my hair stand on end

Just listened, fucking awesome, thanks. Have you ever heard Ravi Shankar's live thing from the Concert for Bangladesh? Similar vibe to Eternity.

so the Ezra Feinberg album Recumbent Speech from last year is hitting a lot of ECM notes for me. ECM and tubular bells and tortoise and jim o'rourke. All that good stuff.

That Ezra Feinberg album is great.

Just listened, fucking awesome, thanks. Have you ever heard Ravi Shankar's live thing from the Concert for Bangladesh? Similar vibe to Eternity.

God, this album is so good. Not heard that particular Shankar - will check it out for sure.