ECM Recording Artists

maciej obara’s melodies are permeated with eastern-european melancholy. the polish alto sax player takes inspiration from classical music as well as roma culture. for the compositions on his album frozen silence, he retreated to the mountainous karkonosze region in south-west poland, where his family is from. the emptiness and silence of the landscape is reflected in the music, which offers space for obara’s band members to improvise. crucial for the band sound is pianist dominik wania, already a musical partner of obara in the band of legendary trumpeter tómasz stanko. the band is rounded out by two top scandinavian players, norwegian double bassist ole morten vågan and swedish drummer jon fält. frozen silence is obara’s third album on the renowned ecm label, following unloved and three crowns, which included renditions of compositions by famous polish composers henryk górecki and krzysztof komeda.

since 2001 ronin has been bridging the gap between minimal music, jazz, zen meditation and martial arts. with utmost precision, swiss pianist nik bärtsch has been building a consistent oeuvre, recorded in fine detail by renowned label ecm records. through ‘modules’, numbered compositions, he builds a fine-meshed structure that reveals surprising rhythms and grooves. the tight performances recall minimal techno and electronic music.  throughout the years, ronin has had few lineup changes. the newest member is  jeremias keller on bass, since 2020, alongside sha on bass clarinet and double bass clarinet, and kaspar rast on drums. ‘firmly anchored to the groove, swiss-born bärtsch leads his group ronin through knotted moduls. layering his piano into and above ever-evolving patterns from a locked-in rhythm section, the group flirts with rock, funk and some kind of cosmic, steve reich-informed varietal of jazz. when bassist björn meyer and drummer kaspar rast start percolating, bärtsch touches on a new form of musical propulsion, one that isn’t necessarily swinging but always moving, evolving and expanding, ever forward’ (los angeles times).