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ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres. ECM's motto is ''the Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence'', taken from a 1971 review of ECM releases in ''CODA'', a Canadian jazz magazine. The label was distributed in the USA by Warner Bros. Records, PolyGram Records, BMG, and, since 1999, by Universal Music, the successor of PolyGram. Its album covers have been profiled in two books thus far, ''Sleeves of Desire'' and ''Windfall Light'', both published by Lars Müller. ==History== The first ECM release was ''Free at Last'' in 1969 by American pianist Mal Waldron. For some years the label specialised in jazz, releasing recordings by pianists Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Paul Bley, Egberto Gismonti and Art Lande; saxophonist Jan Garbarek, vibraphonist Gary Burton; drummers Jon Christensen and Paul Motian; guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Ralph Towner, Bill Connors and Terje Rypdal; bassists Eberhard Weber, Arild Andersen, Charlie Haden, Barre Phillips and Dave Holland; and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. There is a clear link between some ECM recordings and world music, especially the folk recordings by Jan Garbarek and the work of Steve Tibbetts and Stephan Micus. Other examples of ECM's world music are records by Codona, Tunisian oud musician Anouar Brahem, Indian violinist L. Shankar, Jon Hassell, Dave Liebman and Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos. The ''ECM New Series'' was created in 1984 to document Western classical works. It has released works by various composers, from the early (such as Thomas Tallis, Carlo Gesualdo and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) to the contemporary (such as John Cage, Elliot Carter, Steve Reich and John Adams). The series was initiated for Arvo Pärt's record debut ''Tabula Rasa'', which Eicher recorded and produced in 1977, 1983 and 1984. Since then Pärt and Eicher have built a strong relationship: all works premiere on recordings for the label and all are done in presence of the composer. Keith Jarrett, better known as a jazz musician, contributed together with Gidon Kremer amongst others to ''Tabula Rasa''. He later recorded several classical works by Bach, Mozart, Shostakovich, and others for the series. The three albums ''Music for 18 Musicians'', ''Octet/Music for a Large Ensemble/Violin Phase'', and ''Tehillim'' by Reich have been recorded before 1984 (all with the composer performing) and were later moved to the classical department together with some by Meredith Monk, Thomas Demenga and Harald Weiss. Several of John Adams' definitive works from his minimalist period have been released through the label as well, including ''Harmonium'' and ''Harmonielehre''. Over the years, many other important works by contemporary composers such as Valentin Silvestrov, Tigran Mansurian, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Heinz Holliger, Giya Kancheli, György Kurtág, or Heiner Goebbels as well as the soundtracks of several works by the filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard have been issued on the ''ECM New Series'' label. Outstanding interpreters who released records in classical genres include Kim Kashkashian, András Schiff, Kremer, the Hilliard Ensemble, Thomas Zehetmair, Carolin Widmann, Till Fellner, Herbert Henck, Alexei Lubimov, András Keller, Miklós Perényi, John Holloway, John Potter or most recently Patricia Kopatchinskaja. On many releases, the jazz and classical sides of ECM are combined: For example, Garbarek's ''Officium'' (1994) features him playing saxophone solos over the Hilliard Ensemble singing Gregorian chant, early polyphony and Renaissance works. Garbarek's work with guitarist Ralph Towner draws on, and is as apparently influenced by, 20th century chamber music as by any overtly jazz-oriented material. John Potter, formerly of the Hilliard Ensemble, has recorded works by John Dowland with jazz saxophonist John Surman and others, and Surman's ''Proverbs and Songs'' is a suite of choral settings of Old Testament texts, recorded in Salisbury Cathedral. The label has also released unique works that fit into no obvious genre at all (like the records of composer Meredith Monk). In 2002 and 2004 ECM released a series of compilation CDs titled '':rarum''. Twenty of the label's artists were asked to compile a single CD of their work for the label (Garbarek and Jarrett's compilations are double CDs). Artists who contributed to this series are Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Bill Frisell, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Terje Rypdal, Bobo Stenson, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Egberto Gismonti, Jack DeJohnette, John Surman, John Abercrombie, Carla Bley, Paul Motian, Tomasz Stanko, Eberhard Weber, Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen. Manfred Eicher continues to take an active interest in the music released by ECM, acting as producer on the vast majority of its recordings, although Steve Lake, Thomas Stoewsand, Robert Hurwitz, Lee Townsend, Hans Wendl and Sun Chung have also produced discs for the label. The typical ECM session is just three days — two days to record, one day to mix. Many of the albums have been recorded with Jan Erik Kongshaug (of Talent Studios and later Rainbow Studios) in Oslo, Norway, as sound engineer; other engineers have included Martin Wieland (who recorded Jarrett's "Köln Concert"), James Farber, Stefano Amerio and, on classical recordings, Peter Laenger. After working as a writer for the ''Melody Maker'' Steve Lake first joined the ECM-staff in 1978. While working predominant for the writing department he now has also produced more than 40 records which are more in the experimental areas of jazz like ones of Evan Parker, Roscoe Mitchell, Hal Russell, Robin Williamson, Joe Maneri or Mat Maneri. Furthermore, he published the book ''Horizons Touched: The Music of ECM'' (2007) with music critic/novelist Paul Griffiths and made contributions to the books ''Sleeves of Desire: a Cover Story'' (1996), ''Windfall Light: The Visual Language of ECM'' (2010) and ''ECM - A Cultural Archaeology'' (2012). In fall 2012 the Munich museum Haus der Kunst opened an exhibition about the work of the label called ''ECM - A Cultural Archaeology''. It pointed out the early jazz-focused years till mid '80s before the ''New Series'' was initiated. In close relation with Eicher and ECM the exhibition was created by Okwui Enwezor and Markus Müller. In contrast to the historic-based content of the exhibition, it was accompanied with a concert series of current artists of the label which included François Couturier, Enrico Rava, Meredith Monk, András Schiff, Evan Parker, Gidon Kremer or Tomasz Stanko. Some of them, anyway, do have a long past with the label - even if their 'home' is ''ECM'' or ''New Series''. Additionally Eicher curated also a film series of eleven selected movies which relate to the label - some of its filmmakers are strongly related to ECM like Theo Angelopoulos or Jean-Luc Godard, others gave inspiration to the label like Ingmar Bergmann or Andrei Tarkovsky, and others used its music. The physical catalogue of the exhibition was published by Prestel Verlag in German and English. Another extended exhibition was displayed in Seoul, Korea, from September till November 2013. Under the Gertrude Stein quote ''Think of your Ears as Eyes'' the exhibition took a wider view on the label's history then the Munich one, but was also accompanies by a concert series with Kim Kashkashian, András Schiff, Myung-Whun Chung, Heinz Holliger, Norma Winstone, Ralph Towner and Yeahwon Shin. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ECM Records」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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