“The ECM label and its founder Manfred Eicher have altered musical history. ECM has gone on to become the most important imprint in the world for jazz and new music.”
– The Independent
2004 marked the 35th anniversary of ECM Records, founded by Manfred Eicher in Munich in 1969, and also the 20th anniversary of ECM New Series, which was launched in 1984. The range of music addressed over the years, in almost 900 record productions of improvised music and notated music, cannot easily be summarized, although innovation has been a hallmark of the work at all levels. Having changed perceptions of improvisation with meticulously realized jazz album productions, ECM has also brought new ideas and energies to the classical tradition, introduced important contemporary composers and interpreters, set standards for imaginative reconstructions of early music, explored the margins of the avant-garde, investigated the common ground between a multiplicity of folk musics, recorded poetry of Hölderlin, Seferis, T.S. Eliot and more, and issued soundtracks to the films of Godard and Angelopoulos. Innovations in record production have accompanied the musical innovations: soun!
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Few other labels can have broached so broad a spectrum of music for so long and with such commitment. Associated with major companies in selected territories only for the purposes of distribution, ECM has guarded its creative independence at every step of the journey. “Free At Last”, the title of the very first ECM album (by Mal Waldron) could have been as apt a motto as “The Most Beautiful Sound Next To Silence”, a phrase first coined by Canada’s Coda magazine, reviewing early ECM discs, in 1971.
Visually as well as sonically, ECM has made an impact, and its cover art has also been the subject of books, as well as numerous essays and exhibitions. In graphic design, as in musical direction, ECM has stood out by virtue of its permanent distance to the trends of the season.
“Fashion counts for nothing in Eicher’s outlook... His driving ideal, to put the music first, is a model which any aspiring label should pay attention to, jazz-directed or otherwise. While many decision-makers labour over concepts, marketing and packaging, Eicher’s deceptively simple aesthetic is unfailingly harmonious. He records musicians he likes, allows them to trust their own instincts, and plays a directorial role... His firm but nurturing hand helped to set down some of great jazz works of the past 30 years... and he always seems responsive to the idea that something dramatically fresh is perpetually waiting on the perimeters. Hence the initiation of ECM’s New Series, dedicated to contemporary written works or modern interpretative playing.”
– Jazz Review
Faithfulness to the musicians and the music is one of the cornerstones of ECM philosophy, and underlines the decision to keep as many titles as possible in print. All currently available recordings on ECM and ECM New Series are detailed on this web site. ECM also distributes two additional labels – WATT, devoted to the music of Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, friends and relatives, and Egberto Gismonti’s Carmo label.
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