33 RPM - Crackling Whispers "50 Years ECM Records

Arne Reimer and Michael Rausch talk about the "second most beautiful sound after silence" and let the records spin.

The "second most beautiful sound after silence" a Canadian magazine once wrote about the famous ECM sound. Silence is always present on ECM albums. As a pause of several seconds at the beginning of an album as well as between the notes - even if they sound so dense.
The history of the label began in 1969: Manfred Eicher, a studied double bassist and active jazz and orchestral musician, produced his first recording for a label he founded at the suggestion of businessman Karl Egger and because other labels seemed to have forgotten the sound. The "Edition of Contemporary Music," ECM, is born. "Free at last" is the name of the first record - with the jazz pianist Mal Waldron, who was living in Munich at the time. The range of recordings made since then spans from the avant-garde jazz of the early years to great works of classical and new music.
Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Egberto Gismonti, Enrico Rava, Manfred Schoof: entire eras of jazz can be covered with the artists Eicher has recorded. And with interpreters of classical music, from András Schiff to Thomas Zehetmair, you can discover many other exciting facets - and not least with many composers, such as György Kurtág, Arvo Pärt and Valentin Silvestrov.
A special insight into Eichler's sound-loving work is offered by his and Heinz Bütler's film version of Max Frisch's "Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän". Crystal-clear pattering thundershower, foamy roaring sea and thoughtful old man steps on wooden floor - the film is carried in particular by the outstanding brilliance of its sounds.
Arne Reimer, jazz photographer and author, together with Michael Rausch, will approach the history of ECM and the special sound of the label's recordings by listening to records and in conversation.
The record talk will take place prior to the concerts of the Maciej Obara Quartet and the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra in the Kesselhaus of the Kunstkraftwerk.
Admission is free.
Homepage ECM Records.
Homepage Arne Reimer.
To the Facebook event.