"On the face of it this modest little mainstream album doesn’t have classic status, but I was so beguiled by it that I couldn’t resist the four stars.

Since forming in 2018 RYMDEN has established itself as one of the leading piano trios to ever emerge from the Nordic Jazz scene.

Unique instrumentation bridges Greek folkloric and modern jazz worlds, with Klampanis (bass, artistic direction), Areti Ketime (vocals), Thomas Konstantinou (oud, laouto), Giorgos Kotsinis (clarinet), Kristjan Randalu (piano), Ziv Ravitz (drums, electronics, co-production) and more.

Ada Morghe alias Alexandra Helmig ist ein „wahres Multitalent“ (rbb) Schauspielerin, preisgekrönte Autorin und eine der faszinierendsten Musikerinnen Deutschlands.

Seit der Gründung im Jahr 1997 hat es acht verschiedene Versionen des NU-Ensembles gegeben - jedes Mal ein neues Stück, eine neue Besetzung, ein neues Thema.

The new Danish neo-soul duo Tigeroak consists of Laurits Steen Møberg, an electronic musician, producer, and guitarist, and Anna Prinds, vocalist and lyrical composer.

"Black Orpheus" documents a 2012 solo recital, not only the last in his homeland but the last anywhere, by idiosyncratic Japanese improviser Masabumi Kikuchi, who died in 2015. One of the uncategorizable greats, Kikuchi occupied his own musical universe and in his final years was quietly and systematically severing his ties to jazz, drifting instead towards what he called "floating sound and harmonies", introspective and poetic improvisations.

Masabumi Kikuchi makes his ECM debut with "Sunrise". The album bursting with riveting spontaneity and free-form improvisation finds the well-versed musician joined by a star-studded lineup which includes double bassist Thomas Morgan and legendary drummer Paul Motian. The serene ten track work, comprised of mostly ballads, is executed flawlessly as each harmonic movement is handled with precision and clarity. The trio, all masters in the jazz world, deliver an album that is breathtaking.

The first V.S.O.P. tour triggered a flood of recording activity in July 1977, but only a fraction of it was released in the U.S. This session, recorded in San Francisco just days before the Quintet concerts in Berkeley and San Diego, finds Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams mixing it up sans the horns – and the results are more reflective and cerebral than the full Quintet concerts.

Ketil Bjørnstad’s passion for the English metaphysical poet John Donne (1572-1631) is a lifelong affair. His settings of Donne’s verse have led to recordings including The Shadow, Grace and the ECM album The Light. “After working with the texts of John Donne for more than twenty years, I still find new approaches to understanding what he wrote and I find music throughout. It is in the language, in the rhythm, in the silence between the sentences - a passionate quest for meaning and reconciliation. Donne's dramatic life is reflected in the texts and everywhere in them you will find the passion, melodies and sounds”. Bjørnstad wrote A passion for John Donne for the Oslo International Church Festival in the winter of 2011/2012 and the premiere performance – documented here – was at the Sofienberg Kirke in Oslo in March 2012.

Written in 1944, Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony is one of his greatest and most complete symphonic statements. At its première he himself called it “a symphony of the grandeur of the human spirit”. The first movement couples considerable strength with unexpected yet highly characteristic twists of melody. After a violent scherzo followed by a slow movement of sustained lyricism, with a fiercely dramatic middle section, the finale blazes with barely suppressed passion. The Year 1941 is another wartime work, a symphonic suite written in response to the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

"Gefion", named for the Norse goddess associated with ploughing, prophecy and premonition, is the ECM leader debut of Danish guitarist Jakob Bro. The guitarist’s feeling for melody, sound-colour and atmosphere served him well in those contexts, as it does here in the realization of his own free floating ballads and drifting, spacious-yet-focused pieces. “Lucidity is in the air when guitarist Jakob Bro plays,” the late Danish journalist Ib Skovgaard wrote. “His music transcends genres. It’s beyond categories, a personal music following a track which is consistent with Bro’s constant search for melodic clarity in the songs”.

Nadia and Lili Boulanger, each in their own way, made a lasting impact on the musical world of the Twentieth Century.

After adventures in the most diverse formations and musical styles, World jazz icon Nguyên Lê returns to the trio format with which he once founded his international career.

Previously unreleased recording of bassist/composer Graham Collier's seminal British jazz album 'Down Another Road' recorded live in 1969 at Stockholm's Jazz Day festival, his all-star sextet includes jazz heavyweights Harry Beckett, Stan Sulzmann, Karl Jenkins and John Marshall.