ECM
The Munich label ECM
ECM, short for Edition of Contemporary Music, is a record label from Munich that releases records in the fields of contemporary jazz and contemporary classical music, but is known above all for producing artists who combine both styles.
The label was founded in 1969 by Manfred Eicher, with Karl Egger on board as a financial backer. Egger is still managing director of the company today, Eicher is producer and manager. At the beginning of the production activities, Eicher concentrated on the style of avant-garde jazz, a direction of free jazz characterized by its regularity in rhythm and tempo. Initially, the focus was also more on European-influenced jazz variants, but it was not until 1972 that typically American-influenced jazz artists were also produced. The first release was "Free at Last" in January 1970 by Mal Waldron, a pianist from the USA living in Europe, who only produced this one record with ECM. Eicher has worked with the Norwegian jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek since the early days of the label; the record that helped him make his breakthrough, "Witchi-Tai-To", was released in 1973. The album was a collaboration with the bassist Palle Danielsson and the drummer Jon Christensen. The latter was the label's regular drummer for a while, as he can be heard on drums on many recordings. He was also a member of the European Quartet, which had been performing since the mid-1970s and consisted of Garbarek and another ECM star, pianist Keith Jarrett. Jarrett recorded his first ECM record in 1971 with "Facing You", played the first tour organized by the label and released "The Köln Concert" in 1975, the best-selling jazz solo album and the best-selling piano solo album of all time. Consisting of four parts and released on a double LP, the improvisational concert has sold more than 3.5 million copies on record and CD to date. Of course, "The Köln Concert" by Keith Jarrett is also ECM's most commercially successful title. In 1984, the label also began to release classical records. To date, over 1000 ECM records have been released, most of which are still available. The sound quality of the label's recordings can be described as unusually high. The record covers, which were and still are designed by award-winning graphic artists, are also a trademark. In 2009, "sounds and silence", a documentary film about the label founder Manfred Eicher, was produced, which observes his working methods and shows him interacting with some ECM artists.
