12.05.2025 | Latest
ECM Explorations
From April 25-29 the prestigious concert hall Philharmonie de Paris dedicated a concert series to ECM — themed ECM Explorations –, which included a wide variety of ECM artists in sold-out performances that received standing ovations. The French press has reacted with rave-reviews, most notably the French weekly cultural magazine Télérama, who calls ECM “one of the most influential labels in the history of jazz. And not only that. Its founder, Manfred Eicher, also set out from the 80s, to produce contemporary composers (Arvo Pärt, Valentin Silvestrov, Sofia Goubaïdoulina…) and world music fusion albums (Shankar, Savina Yannatou, Kayhan Kalhor…). But the world is not doing well. And it’s probably no coincidence that, among the artists featured by the Philharmonie this weekend — under the title ‘ECM explorations, the grand aventure of contemporary music’ –, two of them have spoken out on the war in the Middle East.”
Anouar Brahem
After The last Sky
Anouar Brahem and his quartet with Anja Lechner, Dave Holland and Django Bates has been touring Europe in support of their new highly acclaimed record After The Last Sky, named after a poem by Palestinian poet and author Mahmoud Darwish, and the group was the main act for the Philharmonie’s festivities, performing two concerts accross the ‘explorations’.
Télérama:
“A blissful album, full of echoes of current events, as this extract from the booklet reveals. Accompanied by Django Bates (piano), Dave Holland (double bass) and Anja Lechner (cello), the Tunisian oud player performed his compositions with the utmost sobriety, without the slightest hint of pathos. Almost all of them evoke an element of Palestinian culture, be it the fruits of the earth (The Sweet Oranges of Jaffa), those of thought (Edward Saïd’s Rêverie, a tribute to the great intellectual intellectual Edward Saïd) or powerful symbols (The Eternal Olive Tree). […] Listened to with rare contemplation, the music drew rapturous applause.”
Avishai Cohen
Ashes To Gold
Trumpeter Avishai Cohen and his quartet presented music off of his new album Ashes To Gold. “At the Philharmonie,” writes Télérama, “[Avishai Cohen] never equated the Israeli and Palestinian populations with their governments. Accusing them of ‘acting against peace and compassion’ and of ‘dividing rather than uniting’, he expressed his dismay and sorrow for ‘the people of both sides, who are heartbroken’, before inviting the audience to consider Ashes to Gold as ‘a prayer for peace, dedicated to the hostages and their families’. A courageous stance whose sincerity was proven in the violently expressionist music that was to follow, marked by the chaos but vibrant with humanity.”
“With these two concerts, the ECM label has done much more than demonstrate how much it remains in touch with the times,” concludes Télérama. “It proved that human expression is still possible, despite all the horrors committed in the Middle East over the last eighteen months, and beyond the cultural identities of each individual. That music and poetry are universal and can still maintain, in such dark times, a little hope.”
Arvo Pärt
Tõnu Kaljuste
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
The Philharmonie celebrations of the label concluded with a special performance of Arvo Pärt works, performed by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste. Diapason wrote a glowing review of the concert: “Kaljuste’s conducting is admirable, sparing and yet so productive. The conductor leads his ensemble in the sinuous but constant steps of ‘Summa’ (1977), the pioneering ‘credo’ of this aesthetic. He takes advantage of the generous resonance of the auditorium to bring out the luminous climax (“Lumen”) of the canticle of old Symeon (Nunc dimittis, 2001), then illuminates the contrasting dramaturgy of the little cantata Dopo la vittoria (1996-1998) as soon as the trotting opening is over.”
Kit Downes and Seb Rochford, who released their
duo record A Short Diary in 2023, presented music
off that album at the Philharmonie’s studio location.
All photos, excluding magazine clippings, by ©Sam Harfouche
