ECM-News: Anouar Brahem, Mark Turner, Trio Mediaeval

		Anouar Brahem’s Souvenance for oud, quartet and string orchestra receives its European concert premiere at Munich’s Prinzregententheater on December 4. The Tunisian oud-master and composer will be joined by François Couturier (piano), Klaus Gesing (bass clarinet), Björn Meyer (bass guitar), and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Risto Joost. Tickets can be obtained from Bell’Arte and München Ticket. The double album Souvenance is out now in Germany. Release in other world territories follows in January 2015. A film about the making of the album can be seen here.
		Congratulations to Mark Turner whose album Lathe of Heaven has just won an album-of- the-year prize, the Coup de Coeur of France’s Académie Charles Cros. The Turner Quartet made a lot of new friends on its recent European tour and garnered much press coverage. The “mystery” of Mark’s unique saxophone sound has been the subject of debate in the media. Manfred Eicher discusses Turner and his band in a video podcast on ECM’'s YouTube Channel. Other podcasts in this series include one on Moderato cantabile by cellist Anja Lechner and pianist François Couturier, a recording recently the subject of in-depth review in German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel. A third podcast focuses on Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa and the beginning of ECM New Series. (A propos Pärt, we still have in stock a few copies of the deluxe edition of Tabula rasa published by ECM in collaboration with Universal Edition, which include s facsimiles of Pärt’s manuscripts, study scores, original album liner notes by Wolfgang Sandner and a new introduction by Paul Griffiths.)
		Released this week – and already leaping up diverse classical charts – is Aquilonis by Trio Mediaeval. It's the first of the Scandinavian trio’s releases with their new line-up, in which founder members Anna Maria Friman and Linn Andrea Fuglseth are joined by Berit Opheim, whose background is deeply rooted in Norwegian folk music. Aquilonis is also their first of the Trio’s discs to feature the singers also as instrumentalists, with Anna Maria playing Hardanger fiddle and Linn Andrea playing portable organ. The album is produced by John Potter who, on December 6, will rejoin his old Hilliard Ensemble colleagues in England for the finalconcert in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge. ECMPlayer (http://player.ecmrecords.com/aquilonis)