The Absolute Sound just published The Cutting Edge of ECM: Return of the Avantgarde. An excellent survey of ECM’s edgier stuff. And, not by coincidence, a survey of my library. The mention a few artists I haven’t discovered yet, eager to go shopping.
144 ECM albums in my library, from Paul Bley’s “Open, to Love” (1972) to Giovanni Guidi et al’s “Ida Lupino” (Sep 2016). Some other recent additions:
Andrew Cyrille Quartet “Declaration of Musical Independence”
Ches Smith “The Bell”
Avishai Cohen “Into the Silence”
Anat Fort “Birdwatching”
Vijay Iyer/Wadada Leo Smith “A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke”
Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile “Continuum”
Jack Dejohnette et al “In Movement”
Carla Bley et al “Andando el Tiempo”
But for the edgiest stuff I listen to these days, I go to Pi Recordings:
Steve Lehman “Selebeyone”
Tyshawn Sorey “Inner Spectrum of Variables”
Dan Weiss “Sixteen: Drummers Suite” (heard Weiss live for the first time with Rudresh Mahanthappa et al yesterday as part of their “Bird Calls” tour, superb)
Matt Mitchell “Vista Accumulation”
Liberty Ellman “Radiate”
But the interesting thing is what Roon does for us, letting us traverse relationships. Listen to Anouar Brahe on ECM, discover Francois Couturier and pick him up on other labels. Similarly with Marilyn Crispell, good stuff on ECM BUT her early avant-garde career was on other labels. Etc. etc. The full range of ECM-related artists adds up to much more.