Vijay Iyer: Mutations
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/2300/2372.php)
Mutations is Vijay Iyer’s first album as a leader for ECM, and a recording that will widen perceptions of the pianist-composer’s work. At its centre is “Mutations I-X”, a composition scored for string quartet, piano, and electronics. A major piece built out of cells and fragments, it veers through many atmospheres, from moment to moment propulsive, enveloping, lyrical, luminescent, and strangely beautiful. Through thematic interactivity, the interweaving of acoustic and electronic sound-textures, and some decisive improvisational interventions in notated music, Vijay Iyer has created a multi-faceted suite whose very subject is change. Iyer gives a positive value to the concept of ‘mutation’ in this music, and variously appears in it as an interpreter of notated elements, as an improviser, and as “a sort of laptop artist, mixing in noise and different sounds,” encouraging the transformative processes: The suite is framed by three solo statements: "Spellbound and Sacrosa nct, Cowrie Shells and the Shimmering Sea”, a solo piano reading of one of Iyer’s early compositions, and “Vuln, Part 2" and "When We're Gone", pieces created in summer 2013. The newer compositions put the piano in counterpoint with electronically generated rhythms and textures which extend the aura of the suite, making the arc of the whole album a journey over changing terrain.
ECMPlayer
European Premier:
March 29th, 2014 at Haus der Kunst, Munich
Billy Hart Quartet: One Is The Other
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/2300/2335.php)
The second ECM album by the Billy Hart Quartet is a major musical statement, and one of the outstanding jazz albums of the season. The group’s reach – already broad on 2011’s widely-acclaimed All Our Reasons – is yet more expansive here. Strong compositions – by leader-drummer Hart, tenorist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson – reflect upon a wide swathe of the music’s history, and are distinguished by vivid and imaginative solos and wonderful interplay. A basic premise, that this should be a band in which the vastly-experienced Billy Hart gets to play everything he wants to play, has led to a sense of almost unlimited possibility for all participants. There is freedom and joy in this music, and tenderness, too, not least in the set’s sole standard, a beautifully played version of “Some Enchanted Evening.” Recorded in New York in 2013, and produced by Manfred Eicher.
ECMPlayer
Tourdates:
include venues in USA, Italy, Belgium, France, Denmark and Norway
Click here for details (http://ecmrecords.com/Tours/index.php?artist=Billy+Hart)
Colin Vallon Trio: Le Vent
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/2300/2347.php)
Like the wind celebrated in the title track, the Colin Vallon Trio has a subtle, insinuating power. From a still and silent place its music may breathe gently, or steadily build pressure until attaining an eruptive forcefulness. This sense of poetic compression and quiet relentlessness was evident on the ECM debut Rruga, but with leader Vallon now writing almost all of the program and new drummer Julian Sartorius detailing its floating rhythms, the Swiss trio has entered a brave new space where touch and inflection are more important than soloistic gesture. Melodies, unfolding slowly, are shared between Patrice Moret’s bass and Vallon’s piano. A fresh group language is being developed here, extended in the group improvisations which close the set. Produced by Manfred Eicher at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in 2013.
ECMPlayer
Video for "Juuichi" taken from La Vent
Tourdates
include venues in Switzerland, Germany and France
Click here for details (http://ecmrecords.com/Tours/index.php?artist=Colin+Vallon+%2F+Patrice+Moret+%2F+Julian+Sartorius)
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/2300/2372.php)
Mutations is Vijay Iyer’s first album as a leader for ECM, and a recording that will widen perceptions of the pianist-composer’s work. At its centre is “Mutations I-X”, a composition scored for string quartet, piano, and electronics. A major piece built out of cells and fragments, it veers through many atmospheres, from moment to moment propulsive, enveloping, lyrical, luminescent, and strangely beautiful. Through thematic interactivity, the interweaving of acoustic and electronic sound-textures, and some decisive improvisational interventions in notated music, Vijay Iyer has created a multi-faceted suite whose very subject is change. Iyer gives a positive value to the concept of ‘mutation’ in this music, and variously appears in it as an interpreter of notated elements, as an improviser, and as “a sort of laptop artist, mixing in noise and different sounds,” encouraging the transformative processes: The suite is framed by three solo statements: "Spellbound and Sacrosa nct, Cowrie Shells and the Shimmering Sea”, a solo piano reading of one of Iyer’s early compositions, and “Vuln, Part 2" and "When We're Gone", pieces created in summer 2013. The newer compositions put the piano in counterpoint with electronically generated rhythms and textures which extend the aura of the suite, making the arc of the whole album a journey over changing terrain.
ECMPlayer
European Premier:
March 29th, 2014 at Haus der Kunst, Munich
Billy Hart Quartet: One Is The Other
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/2300/2335.php)
The second ECM album by the Billy Hart Quartet is a major musical statement, and one of the outstanding jazz albums of the season. The group’s reach – already broad on 2011’s widely-acclaimed All Our Reasons – is yet more expansive here. Strong compositions – by leader-drummer Hart, tenorist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson – reflect upon a wide swathe of the music’s history, and are distinguished by vivid and imaginative solos and wonderful interplay. A basic premise, that this should be a band in which the vastly-experienced Billy Hart gets to play everything he wants to play, has led to a sense of almost unlimited possibility for all participants. There is freedom and joy in this music, and tenderness, too, not least in the set’s sole standard, a beautifully played version of “Some Enchanted Evening.” Recorded in New York in 2013, and produced by Manfred Eicher.
ECMPlayer
Tourdates:
include venues in USA, Italy, Belgium, France, Denmark and Norway
Click here for details (http://ecmrecords.com/Tours/index.php?artist=Billy+Hart)
Colin Vallon Trio: Le Vent
(http://ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/2300/2347.php)
Like the wind celebrated in the title track, the Colin Vallon Trio has a subtle, insinuating power. From a still and silent place its music may breathe gently, or steadily build pressure until attaining an eruptive forcefulness. This sense of poetic compression and quiet relentlessness was evident on the ECM debut Rruga, but with leader Vallon now writing almost all of the program and new drummer Julian Sartorius detailing its floating rhythms, the Swiss trio has entered a brave new space where touch and inflection are more important than soloistic gesture. Melodies, unfolding slowly, are shared between Patrice Moret’s bass and Vallon’s piano. A fresh group language is being developed here, extended in the group improvisations which close the set. Produced by Manfred Eicher at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in 2013.
ECMPlayer
Video for "Juuichi" taken from La Vent
Tourdates
include venues in Switzerland, Germany and France
Click here for details (http://ecmrecords.com/Tours/index.php?artist=Colin+Vallon+%2F+Patrice+Moret+%2F+Julian+Sartorius)
