ECM Focus on UK musicians January-February 2018.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
ECM features four new recordings by British artists during the first months of 2018 – John Surman and Kit Downes in January, and Norma Winstone and Andy Sheppard in February. Press release attached.
We have received the following press release;
British Artists on ECM.
ECM Focus on UK musicians January-February 2018
Following the release of Django Bates’ Belovèd’s album The Study of Touch late last year, ECM features four more new recordings by British artists during the first months of 2018 – John Surman and Kit Downes in January, and Norma Winstone and Andy Sheppard in February. More details of these (and also new albums by Bobo Stenson and Thomas Strønen – see below) are given in the attached ECM schedule.
Release date: 19 January
John Surman – Invisible Threads (671 1317)
Saxophonist and clarinettist John Surman, making his first ECM appearance since his acclaimed solo disc Saltash Bells in 2012, here presents a new trio with Brazilian pianist Nelson Ayres and Oslo-based American vibraphonist Rob Waring, players united by such invisible threads as a shared feeling for melody that transcends the idioms.
Kit Downes – Obsidian (578 2651)
Regarded as one of the UK’s outstanding young jazz talents, keyboardist Kit Downes’s previous ECM appearance was on the debut album of Time Is A Blind Guide in 2015, but his first as leader on the label is very different, exploring the sonic possibilities and idiosyncrasies of the organ recorded in three English churches. He is joined on one piece by frequent improvising partner, tenor saxophonist Tom Challenger.
Release date: 16 February;
Norma Winstone – Descansado: Songs for Films (578 6989)
Leading jazz singer Norma Winstone’s very considerable talents as a lyricist are also showcased on this creative journey into the world of cinema with new arrangements – by bass clarinettist Klaus Gesing and pianist Glauco Venier – of music by Nino Rota, Michel Legrand, William Walton, Bernard Herrmann, and Ennio Morricone. Her celebrated trio with Gesing and Venier is augmented by two guests: Norwegian improvising percussionist Helge Andreas Norbakken and Italian classical cellist Mario Brunello.
Andy Sheppard Quartet – Romaria (CD 578 6980 / LP 673 0185)
Saxophonst Andy Sheppard’s quartet – with guitarist Eivind Aarset, double bassist Michel Benita and Seb Rochford on drums – extends the musical explorations begun on their 2015 release Surrounded By Sea, an album praised for its “poignant serenity”. This new programme of compositions by Sheppard (plus the title track by Brazilian singer-songwriter Reanato Teixeira) has a highly atmospheric, ambient drift to the music which Sheppard clearly find liberating.
Other January albums by European artists;
Bobo Stenson Trio – Contra la indecision (578 6976)
The great Swedish trio of pianist Bobo Stenson, double bassist Anders Jormin and drummer Jon Fält takes a stand against indecision in a decisively beautiful new album, their first new recording in six years. As ever, their sources are wide-ranging from a yearning title song by Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez to pieces by Bartók, Mompou and Satie alongside original compositions by Stenson and Jormin and group improvising.
Thomas Strønen & Time Is A Blind Guide – Lucus (CD 577 9058 / LP 579 8928)
Norwegian drummer/composer Thomas Strønen presents a revised edition of his acoustic collective Time Is A Blind Guide, now trimmed to quintet size, and with a new pianist in Wakayama-born Ayumi Tanaka. The group’s three string players, violinist Håkon Aase, British cellist Lucy Railton and double bassist Ole Morten Vågan, all return for Lucus.