Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim sets the poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), using the inspired contemporary English-language versions of Coleman Barks and Kabir Helminski as his source texts. Trygve responds both to the musicality of the translations and to Rumi’s gifts as a storyteller and with Rumi Songs seems to have invented a new kind of Lieder with a Nordic-Oriental orientation. The line-up is strikingly unorthodox, with each of the quartet members bringing their own musical personalities to the material. Classical mezzo-soprano Tora Augestad is well-known as the leader of her own ensemble Music For A While, and for her numerous music-theatre collaborations with Christoph Mathaler. She finds an intimate tone to convey Rumi’s thoughts, underlined by the elegant arrangements and the improvisational input of Seim, Haltli and Henryson.

"Elegy" is the ECM leader debut by vocalist and composer Theo Bleckmann. A prolific recording artist, his association with the label dates back to Meredith Monk's 2002 date Mercy and its follow-up, Impermanence, in 2008 (Bleckmann was a member of her ensemble for 15 years). His voice was also a focal point of Julia Hulsmann's quartet on 2015's Clear Midnight: Kurt Weill & America. For a singer who draws attention to himself almost as much for what he doesn't do as what he does, Elegy is a quiet yet startling offering.

Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, Scottish saxophonist Tommy Smith and Italian expat drummer Paolo Vinaccia made waves around the world with their award-winning debut recording, the much lauded concert album Live at Belleville. "Mira", the trio's studio follow-up, is a programme of soulful ballads and midtempo free-floating sound explorations, pairing Anderson’s muscular bass with Smith’s vaulting tenor in an exceptionally compelling blend.

Bassist Arild Andersen shines as the principal soloist in a celebration of music from ECM with specially-commissioned new big-band arrangements of well-known pieces by Dave Holland, Chick Corea, Trygve Seim, Jan Garbarek, and Keith Jarrett. The resourceful Tommy Smith adds powerful tenor solos, arranges Garbarek's "Molde Canticle", and directs the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra.

Keyboardist Craig Taborn’s Daylight Ghosts is his third ECM release as a leader, a quartet album following acclaimed solo and trio recordings. In addition to Taborn on piano and electronic keyboards and drummer Dave King, the quartet features two New York jazz luminaries, reed player Chris Speed and bassist Chris Lightcap. Each member draws from a broad artistic background, as informed by rock, electronica and diverse strains of world music as by the various permutations of jazz improvisation. "Daylight Ghosts" is animated by dynamism and spectral ambience, acoustic and electric sounds and groove and lingering melody.

This ECM debut from renowned guitarist Ferenc Snétberger features the widely-acclaimed Hungarian musician in a spellbinding solo performance recorded live in 2013 before a rapt audience at the Liszt Academy in Budapest.

Anthony de Mare's choice of pioneering new music for piano typically pays off with critical appreciation for his performances and recordings. On this album he's pays tribute to Stephen Sondheim in a fascinating project. De Mare invited composers from a broad variety of genres from Sondheims own world of musical theater to jazz, classical, pop, film and beyond to re-imagine a Sondheim song of their choice as a solo piano piece.

Bobo Stenson is one of the most influential Scandinavian jazz musicians and one of the very first ECM artists. "Indicum" explores a broad arc of music including tunes by Bill Evans, George Russell, Carl Nielsen, Ola Gjeilo and much more. Wide-ranging repertoire has become a hallmark of Bobo Stensen recordings. The trio dazzles with their stunning eclecticism and rich improvisation.

After a trilogy of highly successful trio albums, Tord Gustavsen branches off in new directions. His new band adds two players familiar to ECM listeners – bassist Mats Eilertsen and saxophonist Tore Brunborg – and introduces the blues-inflected voice of Kristin Asbjørnsen on Tord’s settings of the poetry of W.H. Auden. Inside the ensemble, duo and trio interaction unfolds, taking off from the clear melodic language of Gustavsen’s songwriting.

Two years after “Restored, Returned” introduced this line-up and with extensive touring behind them, on “The Well” the four musicians of the Gustavsen Quartet really blossom as a band in a programme of new tunes by Tord. Sax player Tore Brunborg is given an important voice here, his melodic lines combining bluesy sonority and Nordic cry. Gently but effectively propelled by the subtle pulses of drummer Jarle Vespestad and bassist Mats Eilertsen, Gustavsen’s gospel-tinged, unhurried piano playing displays a characteristic warmth and tenderness.

"Creation" features music selected by Keith Jarrett from his improvised solo concerts recorded in 2014 in Japan, Canada, and Europe. Where in the past the solo documentation has shown the improvisational process unfolding over the course of a single evening, this time Jarrett zeroes in on the most revelatory moments from six concerts in Tokyo, Toronto, Paris and Rome and shapes a new dramaturgy from the intuitive sequencing of the material. With this rewarding departure, Keith Jarrett gives us here the most up-to-the minute account of his spontaneously created music.

Alba is the premiere recording of trumpeter Markus Stockhausen’s duo with pianist Florian Weber, a formation in existence for some six years now. Though very different in their connections to the language of jazz, both musicians share a deep interest in the process of creative expression: of looking inwards and outwards with intensity at things, for echoes, resonances, insights.

Polish alto saxophone player Maciej Obara makes a striking ECM debut with "Unloved", an album whose expressive range embraces tender lyricism and impassioned, fiery, powerful playing. With the exception of the title track - written by Krzysztof Komeda (spiritus rector of modern jazz in Poland) for Janusz Nasfeter's film of the same name - themes are by the highly inventive alto saxophonist.

"Songways" is the highly anticipated follow-up to the trio’s acclaimed 2011 release. Esteemed Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia and his renowned trio presents a new selection of chants, hymns and dances, all written by Battaglia and inspired by descriptions of visionary places from art and literature – from Alfred Kubin, Jonathan Swift or Charles Fourier to Italo Calvino. This instant classic finds a new balance between archaic modal pre-tonal chants and dances, pure tonal songs and hymns and abstract textures.

Pianist Tigran Hamasyan’s Luys I Luso ("Light from the Light") is an extraordinary exploration of Armenian sacred music, hymns and sharakans (Armenia’s liturgical songs) as well as chants, all arranged for voices and piano. This music of the 5th to 19th centuries is given new and dramatic expression through Hamasyan’s improvisational imagination and committed performances from Armenia’s leading choir, the Yerevan State Chamber Choir. Hamasayan has long been deeply interested in Armenian sacred music, increasingly drawn to its “incredibly beautiful melodies".