ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is a record label founded in Munich, Germany in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. ECM is best known for jazz music, but has released a wide variety of recordings, the artists associated with it often refusing to acknowledge boundaries between genres. ECM's motto is "The Most Beautiful Sound Next To Silence", a phrase taken from a 1971 review of ECM releases in Coda, a Canadian music magazine. [1] This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... Also: 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... ECM (Editions of Contemporary Music) is a record label founded in Munich, Germany in 1969 by Manfred Eicher, who has continued to take an active interest in the music released by the label, acting as producer on most of its recordings. ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ...

Eicher has continued to take an active interest in the music released by the label, acting as producer on most of its recordings. The typical ECM session is just three days — two days to record, one day to mix. Manfred Eicher, in general, dislikes overdubbing. Most of the records have been recorded with Jan Erik Kongshaug (of Talent Studios and later Rainbow Studios) in Oslo, Norway as sound engineer. In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Les Paul, a pioneer of multi-track recording. ...

ECM initially concentrated on jazz, releasing records by artists including pianists Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Paul Bley, and Art Lande; saxophonist Jan Garbarek, vibraphone player Gary Burton; drummers Jon Christensen and Paul Motian; guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Ralph Towner and Terje Rypdal; bassists Eberhard Weber, Charlie Haden and Dave Holland; and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Many of the label's early recordings shared a certain common aesthetic framework, including a crisply nuanced recording sound, repertoire consisting mostly of original compositions by the artists, most of which did not "swing" in the conventional sense, and often stark and minimalist photographic cover art. Some detractors characterized the sound as "cold" and the music, and presentation, as "Eurocentric". Others have credited the label's early esthetic approach as a precursor, for better or worse, of the "New Age music" movement. For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... A short grand piano, with the top up. ... Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American pianist and composer. ... Armando Anthony Chick Corea (born June 12, 1941) is a multiple Grammy Award winning American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer. ... Paul Bley is a free jazz pianist born in Montreal, Canada in 1932 and long-time resident in the USA. His music characteristically features strong senses both of melodic voicing and space. ... Art Lande (born 1947 in New York City) is a jazz pianist, drummer, composer and educator. ... The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family. ... Jan Garbarek (born March 4, 1947 in Mysen, Norway) is a Norwegian tenor and soprano saxophonist, active in the jazz, classical, and world music genres. ... A typical Ludwig-Musser vibraphone. ... Gary Burton (born on 23 January 1943 in Anderson, Indiana) is a jazz vibraphone player, known for developing the then-innovative technique of playing the instrument with four mallets, rather than the usual two. ... Bass drum made from wood, rope, and cowskin A drum is a musical instrument in the percussion group that can be large, technically classified as a membranophone. ... Jon Lynn Christensen (b. ... Stephen Paul Motian (born 25 March 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Providence, Rhode Island), is a American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction. ... For other uses, see Guitar (disambiguation). ... Patrick Bruce Metheny (born August 12, 1954 in Lees Summit, Missouri) is an American jazz guitarist. ... John Abercrombie (b. ... Ralph Towner (b. ... Terje Rypdal in Warsaw in 2005 Terje Rypdal (born 23 August 1947 in Oslo) is a Norwegian guitarist and composer. ... Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ... Eberhard Weber (born January 22nd, 1940 in Stuttgart, Germany) is a bassist and composer. ... Charlie Haden, Pescara Italy 1990 Charles Edward Haden (born August 6, 1937) is a jazz double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. ... Dave Holland (born October 1, 1946) is a jazz bassist and composer. ... The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicagos AACM in the late 1960s. ... New Age music is a style of music originally associated with some New Age beliefs. ...

There is a clear link between some ECM recordings and World Music, especially the folk recordings by Jan Garbarek and the work of Steve Tibbetts and Stephan Micus. Other examples of ECM's world music are records by Codona, Tunisian oud musician Anouar Brahem, Indian violinist L. Shankar and Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos. World music is, most generally, all the music in the world. ... Steve Tibbetts is a Minneapolis based American guitarist known for an original approach to both composing and sound-forming. ... Stephan Micus (born January 19, 1953) is a German musician and composer, whose musical style is heavily influenced by his study of traditional instruments and musical techniques from Japan, India, South America, and other countries around the world. ... Front and rear views of an oud. ... Anouar Brahem (أنور ابراهم) (born October 20, 1957) is a Tunisian oud player and composer who is widely regarded as an innovator in his field. ... The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. ... Lakshminarayana Shankar (born April 26, 1950), or L. Shankar, was born in Madras, South India. ... Nana Vasconcelos (02 August 1944 - ) is a brazilian percussionist, who specialized in the 60s in the Berimbau. ...

The ECM New Series was created in the 1980s to concentrate on classical works — it has released work by various composers, from the early (such as Thomas Tallis) to the contemporary (such as Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich). Keith Jarrett, better known as a jazz musician, has recorded several classical works by Bach, Mozart, Shostakovich, and others, for the New Series. Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis (c 1505–23 November 1585) was an English composer. ... Arvo Pärt (born September 11, 1935 in Paide), (IPA: ˈɑr̺vÉ” ˈpær̺t) is an Estonian composer, often identified with the school of minimalism and more specifically, that of mystic minimalism or sacred minimalism. He is considered a pioneer of this style, along with contemporaries Henryk Górecki... Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3, 1936) is an American composer. ... Bach in a 1748 portrait by Haussmann Johann Sebastian Bach (pronounced ) (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it... Bologna Mozart - Mozart age 21 in 1777, see also: face only Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (IPA: , baptized Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart) (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. ... Dmitri Shostakovich   (Russian: , Dmitrij Dmitrievič Å ostakovič) (September 25 [O.S. September 12] 1906–August 9, 1975) was a Russian composer of the Soviet period. ...

On many releases, the jazz and classical sides of ECM are combined: for example, Garbarek's Officium (1994) features him playing saxophone solos over the Hilliard Ensemble singing Gregorian chant, early polyphony and Renaissance works. Garbarek's work with guitarist Ralph Towner draws on, and is as apparently influenced by, 20th century chamber music as by any overtly "jazz" material. John Potter of the Hilliard Ensemble has recorded works by John Dowland with jazz saxophonist John Surman and others, and Surman's Proverbs and Songs is a suite of choral settings of Old Testament texts, recorded in Salisbury Cathedral. The label has also released unique works that fit into no obvious genre at all (like the records of Meredith Monk). A self portrait by Nicholas Hilliard The Hilliard Ensemble is a British male vocal quartet devoted to the authentic performance of early music. ... Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... John Dowland (1563 – February 20, 1626) was an English composer, singer, and lutenist. ... John Douglas Surman (born on 30 August 1944 in Tavistock, England), is a jazz saxophone, clarinet and synthesizer player. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh to refer to its canon, which corresponds to the Protestant Old Testament. ... Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishops Grounds by John Constable c. ... Meredith Monk (born November 20, 1942, in Lima, Peru[1]) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, film-maker, and choreographer. ...

In 2002 and 2004 ECM released a series of compilation CDs called ":rarum". Twenty of the label's artists were asked to compile a single CD of their work for the label (Garbarek and Jarrett's compilations are double CDs). Artists who contributed to this series are Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Bill Frisell, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Terje Rypdal, Bobo Stenson, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Egberto Gismonti, Jack DeJohnette, John Surman, John Abercrombie, Carla Bley, Paul Motian, Tomasz Stanko, Eberhard Weber, Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen. Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945 in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American pianist and composer. ... Jan Garbarek (born March 4, 1947 in Mysen, Norway) is a Norwegian tenor and soprano saxophonist, active in the jazz, classical, and world music genres. ... Armando Anthony Chick Corea (born June 12, 1941) is a multiple Grammy Award winning American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer. ... Gary Burton (born on 23 January 1943 in Anderson, Indiana) is a jazz vibraphone player, known for developing the then-innovative technique of playing the instrument with four mallets, rather than the usual two. ... William Richard Bill Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. ... The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicagos AACM in the late 1960s. ... Terje Rypdal in Warsaw in 2005 Terje Rypdal (born 23 August 1947 in Oslo) is a Norwegian guitarist and composer. ... Bo Gustav Stenson (mostly known as Bobo Stenson, born in 1944) is a Swedish piano player and jazz musician. ... Patrick Bruce Metheny (born August 12, 1954 in Lees Summit, Missouri) is an American jazz guitarist. ... Dave Holland (born October 1, 1946) is a jazz bassist and composer. ... Egberto Gismonti Egberto Gismonti (born 1947 in Carmo, RJ, Brazil) is a Brazilian composer, guitarist and pianist. ... Jack DeJohnette (b. ... John Douglas Surman (born on 30 August 1944 in Tavistock, England), is a jazz saxophone, clarinet and synthesizer player. ... John Abercrombie (b. ... Carla Bley, née Borg, (born May 11, 1936) is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. ... Stephen Paul Motian (born 25 March 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Providence, Rhode Island), is a American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction. ... Tomasz Stanko (born 1942-) is a renowned Polish jazz trumpet player. ... Eberhard Weber (born January 22nd, 1940 in Stuttgart, Germany) is a bassist and composer. ... Arild Andersen (born October 27, 1945) is a Norwegian bass player. ... Jon Lynn Christensen (b. ...

Distribution

The label has been distributed in the USA by Polydor Records and PolyGram, and is now distributed by Universal Music. 1920s vintage Polydor export label with its double-horn gramophone logo In 1954 Polydor Records introduced their distinctive orange label. ... PolyGram was the name from 1972 of the major label recording company started by Philips as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. ... Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest major label in the record industry, with a 23% market share. ...

Location

Munich-Graefelfing (near the highway exit, above the ProMark shop)

Previous location; Munich-Pasing

See also

• List of record labels

This is a list of record labels. ...

External links

• Official site