ECM

eleventhvolume

Active member
Clean forgot about the obvious convergence of ECM-world and Dissensus-world: Nils Petter Molvær.

He did at least two albums that combined Scando-jazz mist-rising-over-fjord-at-dawn type biz with - no really! - drum & bass rhythms: Khmer and Solid Ether



There's also (groan) an album of remixes by the likes of Herbert, called Recolored. I haven't dared give that a listen. And now I look, another similar-seeming job, called Remakes (among the credits of guests I spot the name Dego.... also Bugge Wesseltoft).

At the time (late '90s) I remember being quite excited-intrigued by news of this ECM-goes-D&B gambit (still in the jungle-patriot phase, so any signs of its propagation into other territories was encouraging - felt same about the Bowie move with Earthling, or the Derek Bailey listening to the pirates thing).

But then listening to Khmer it became clear that.... well, it wasn't really drum and bass being combined with ECM-stuff, it was more like generic '90s electronic rhythm (as in fact was the case with Earthling, apart from "Little Wonder" which was well Amen-y). And the beat element was on the whole rather plodding and uninspired.

The Nils Petter Molvaer elements were fine and dandy - nice sort of Jon Hassell / City of Fiction moody dark atmospherics - but he clearly hadn't grasped was what jazz-like and potentially compatible about D&B, nor enlisted the right talents to help him get the sound. There was a faint suspicion that maybe he'd only heard an album by Lamb.

I listened again this week and felt exactly the same about Khmer and could discern no improvement with Solid Ether either.

Like with Bowie, the attempt seemed endearing, the intent well-meant.... but the outcome didn't cut the mustard.
I think it depends where you're coming from. I've a moderate love of Jungle and can see why Khmer wouldn't work, but I love the spareness of it, the breakbeats are only one ingredient. The thing I can't stand about later NPM (and I hated the remixes) were the awful samples that his band used. I wonder whether you liked his guitarist Eivind Aarset's first two albums any better, but maybe not. Hassell was clearly a huge influence on NPM and of course on Arve Henriksen whose own ECM release was one of his weakest.
 

eleventhvolume

Active member
I think he did a few for ECM, Bill Frisell - In Line has this sort of keening, sustain-heavy guitar sound, a thin spidery shimmery sort of sound, perhaps related to certain things Fripp developed, or that Michael Brook chap who does "infinite guitar".

I must say though that everything else I've heard by him (which is not a huge amount but some) hasn't appealed nearly as much as In Line or the playing on Paths, Prints. He does quite a bit of stuff that is vaguely Americana-ish. In some ways a bit like a Ry Cooder-ish sort of figure.

Audiophilia and ECM = strong crossover indeed.

The biggest ECM nut I ever met had a whole large room at his parent's house in Yorkshire, devoted to his high end hi-fi system. He'd sit there basking in the pristine expanses of the ECM discography.

Easy stereotypes re ECM I think, just because some fans are also audio nuts doesn't have to reflect on the quality of the music.

Frisell was also a member of the wonderful Naked City, sadly he does seem to have gone the route of Americana nowadays.Though I'm not a fan of such music, his Disfarmer album would be my favourite, but the quality of the titular portrait photographer's work definitely plays a large part in that.
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
  • Julian Priester - Love, Love (for the kozmigroov tip)

relistened to this yesterday, it is a great record, and the other one on ECM also good

talking of post-Milesian action, on and off ECM, I was surprised to discover recently that Santana's Lotus - a live double album, yikes - is actually some tasty post-Milesian action
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
also liked the Robin Kenyatta and Terje Rypdal albums recommended upthread

Urban Bushmen - the ultraclarity of the ECM production really works well with their their sound
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
thought I'd give Keith Jarrett's Koln concerts another go

to these philistine ears it sounded a bit like Bruce Hornsby meandering across the keyboard in search of a tune as good as "That's Just The Way It Is"
 

Woebot

Well-known member
The other ones I seem to remember liking.

Frisell - In Line (well I know I like this one, I played it the other day.)
Jon Hassell - Power Spot
Bill Connors - Theme to the Guardian
Bennie Maupin - the Jewel in the Lotus

(getting fainter the memory of liking here)
Azimuth
Norma Winstone
David Torn, Cloud About Mercury
some things by Ralph Towner (although Sargasso Sea, despite the enticing title, is dull)
one or both of the Julian Priester records

Art Ensemble of Chicago don't feel like an ECM artist although they have been

Was once quite taken with that whole Hilliard Ensemble / Arvo Part / Perotin nexus

Always liked the idea of Steve Tibbetts but...
Always reckoned Hip ECM was:

Hassell: Powerspot
Julian Priester: Pepe Mtoto
Marion Brown: Afternoon of a Georgia Faun
Bennie Maupin: Jewel in the Lotus
Dave Holland: Emerald Tears
 

Woebot

Well-known member
But those are probably not the core LPs which is the Terje Rypdal, Eberhard Weber, John Abercrombie etc stuff (excuse spellung mishtakes)
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
But those are probably not the core LPs which is the Terje Rypdal, Eberhard Weber, John Abercrombie etc stuff (excuse spellung mishtakes)

i think you got 3 out of 3 there! Terje is the tricky one - I'm always wanting to to add an h in the surname

Core artists at one point would also have included Pat Metheny, Stephen Micus, Ralph Towner, John Surman.... names like these and some others you would see a lot ... Garbarek obviously too.... the prolific, album every year or thereabouts types

I lose sense of the roster gradually through the '90s and the 21st Century ECM is a bit of a blank for me

Put out so much stuff
 

Woebot

Well-known member
i think you got 3 out of 3 there! Terje is the tricky one - I'm always wanting to to add an h in the surname

Core artists at one point would also have included Pat Metheny, Stephen Micus, Ralph Towner, John Surman.... names like these and some others you would see a lot ... Garbarek obviously too.... the prolific, album every year or thereabouts types

I lose sense of the roster gradually through the '90s and the 21st Century ECM is a bit of a blank for me

Put out so much stuff
Handy summary thank you @blissblogger.
 

cossrooper

Active member
Steve Tibbetts is one of my favorite discoveries of the last 5 years. all of his ECM albums are insane but the song Wish on Big Map Idea is the one for me. Seems to have been scrubbed from Youtube as of lately but here's some streaming links:


He's a guy from the midwest USA who spent years in India/Nepal/Indonesia etc and his music sounds exactly like that -- sort of American folk mixed with insane arrangements and vaguely eastern vibe. His first demos were just hand percussion, 12 string guitar, and synthesizers and a 4 track recorder that he used by sneaking into the computer music lab at the local college in the middle of the night (!!!)

Being from the midwest and always sort of on the hunt for stripped back, folksy music I lean into that part of but there is a LOT more going on. Some of his tracks lose me with the jazz fusion noodling but others stay just restrained enough to be some of my favorite music ever.
 

cossrooper

Active member
Also this performance of Walking off Northern Song (ECM 1982) is on another level. So good and so dear to me that I almost don't even want to share it, just want to keep it to myself 🤣


The last minute or so where they're just sort of tapping on their instruments epitomizes Tibbetts for me w/ the focus on percussion/space/warmth
 

jenks

thread death
I don’t know if Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy has been mentioned yet but Great Pretender, All The Magic and Only Got Eyes For You
 
Top