ECM is now streaming

[neuroticdog]

So now that the entire ECM catalog is up and streaming on iTunes, Spotify, etc...anyone care to list their 10 ten?

TIA

best
Michael

[Miciah]

I'll play. Doing 10 is hard for me. It leaves out about 75 other albums I want to list. So I only allowed one album per artist, and since the Tibbetts release is actually a re-release, I did 11. It also helped to not over-think it and just list ones that popped immediately into my head. Most are what I would consider to be "usual suspects."

In no particular order:

John Abercrombie - Timeless
Terje Rypdal - Odyssey
Pat Metheny - Bright Size Life
Chick Corea - Return To Forever
Jan Garbarek / Bobo Stenson Quartet - Witchi-Tai-To
Bill Connors - Theme To The Guardian
Keith Jarrett - The Survivor’s Suite
Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians
Steve Tibbetts - Yr
Marc Johnson - Bass Desires
Julian Priester Pepo Mtoto - Love Love

But of course, there's a ton of other releases by Rypdal, Towner, Abercrombie, Garbarek, Tibbetts, Phillips, Jarrett, Weber, Codona, Double Image, Gismonti, Liebman, etc., that could go on the list.

[Kcrimso]

Here is some recommendations from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/a...ing-guide.html

[Dana5140]

Miciah- with maybe one exception, you chose what i would choose. :-) (Marc Johnson being the only one I am not familiar with.). I might take Barre Phillips first ECM disc instead.

I also just got a new ECM, by Michael Mantler and featuring Magma ex-vocalist Himiko Paganotti on vocals- How It Is- a remarkable album of arts songs.

[Mascodagama]

Off the top of my head and in no order:

Ralph Towner - Solstice
Pat Metheny - 80/81
Jimmy Giuffre 3 - 1961
Jan Garbarek - Afric Pepperbird
Eberhard Weber - Yellow Fields
Nick Bartsch’s Ronin - Live (2012)
Tomasz Stanko - Leosia
Kenny Wheeler - Around Six
Edward Vesala - Lumi
Keith Jarrett - Belonging

[Kcrimso]

Michael Mantlers The Hapless Child And Other Inscrutable Stories: https://open.spotify.com/album/6zJRA2J37Sz1Fsbo4FpLP7

[undergroundrailroad]

Most of the ECM titles (at least on Spotify) seem to be "watermarked" with Universal's reprehensible audible digital watermark. Heinous crime.

[NogbadTheBad]

Will be checking this out, I only have a few ECM albums so it seems like its time to explore.

[Troopers For Sound]

Without looking at the record collection the ones that come to mind are:

Art Lande/Jan Garbarek - Red Lanta
Steve Reich - Music for Large Ensemble/Octet/Violin Phase
Keith Jarrett - Hymns/Spheres
Ralph Towner - Solstice
Eberhard Weber - The Colours of Chloe
Terje Rypdal - Waves
Pat Metheny Group - s/t
Steve Kuhn - Non Fiction
Thomas Stronen - Time is a Blind Guide
Mathias Eick - Midwest

A crazy amount of incredible music on this label!

Matt.

[Jerjo]

I'm not doing the streaming but keep those top ten lists coming!

[StarThrower]

How about a top 10 not currently available on CD? That's what I'd look for on a streaming service.

For example: Ralph Towner-Old Friends New Friends, John Abercrombie-Characters, New Directions in Europe, etc...

[Joe F.]

How about a top 10 not currently available on CD? That's what I'd look for on a streaming service.

A few....

Dave Liebman- Drum Ode
Dave Liebman- Lookout Farm
Barre Phillips- Mountainscapes
Barre Phillips- Three Day Moon
Terje Rypdal- What Comes After
Julian Priester- Polarization

[Dave (in MA)]

Rypdal - Waves
Rypdal, Vitous, DeJohnette - Rypdal, Vitous, DeJohnette
Oregon - Oregon
Oregon - Crossing

[chalkpie]

Most of the ECM titles (at least on Spotify) seem to be "watermarked" with Universal's reprehensible audible digital watermark. Heinous crime.

Not sure what this means?

[undergroundrailroad]

Not sure what this means?

There's a good explanation here: https://www.mattmontag.com/music/uni...ible-watermark

Listen to a couple minutes of any Chick Corea or Keith Jarrett piano performance and you'll hear it quite clearly. It's been true of classical titles from Decca, Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Archiv & L'Oiseau-Lyre for some time. Drives me batty. For such impeccably recorded music its like defacement of fine paintings.

[JJ88]

I've heard relatively little of the overall catalogue but:

Eberhard Weber- The Colors Of Chloe, Yellow Fields
Pat Metheny- Pat Metheny Group, As Falls Wichita...
Keith Jarrett- The Koln Concert
Ralph Towner- Solstice
Jan Garbarek- Witchi Tai To
John Abercrombie- Timeless
Chick Corea- Return To Forever
Rypdal/Dejohnette/Vitous

[NogbadTheBad]

There's a good explanation here: https://www.mattmontag.com/music/uni...ible-watermark

Listen to a couple minutes of any Chick Corea or Keith Jarrett piano performance and you'll hear it quite clearly. It's been true of classical titles from Decca, Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Archiv & L'Oiseau-Lyre for some time. Drives me batty. For such impeccably recorded music its like defacement of fine paintings.

Why do they do it?

[undergroundrailroad]

Why do they do it?

To track where a pirate acquired the music. Good idea horribly implemented. It's been done to AM/FM radio signals for a long time to help ratings systems track listenership, but I've never noticed it there.

Once you get attuned to it, you can hear it in the streaming versions of the Moody Blues, early Gentle Giant, etc. Pretty much anybody on a label currently owned by Universal.

With the importance of fidelity to ECM, it's crazy to me that people there signed off on it.

[JJ88]

Why do they do it?

Reminds me of the 'copy protection' fiasco on CDs in the early-mid 2000s. Using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut and treating consumers as potential criminals.

[pb2015]

Once you get attuned to it, you can hear it in the streaming versions of the Moody Blues, early Gentle Giant, etc. Pretty much anybody on a label currently owned by Universal.

A lot of John Coltrane too. It's a shame. Only good news is that I've been noticing it less often in new releases of the last couple years (for instance, a lot of the Rolling Stones catalog is watermarked, but as far as I can tell the mono box set they did recently is not).

[Steve F.]

With the importance of fidelity to ECM, it's crazy to me that people there signed off on it.

No one who gives a fuck about fidelity is listening to ECM on Spotify. They are listening to ECM on Spotify because it's free.

[undergroundrailroad]

I've been noticing it less often in new releases of the last couple years

Me too. That's why I was surprised that the whole ECM catalog got the treatment.

[NogbadTheBad]

So will purchased downloads feature it or not?

[undergroundrailroad]

No one who gives a fuck about fidelity is listening to ECM on Spotify. They are listening to ECM on Spotify because it's free.

I've heard suggestions that a lot of the complaints about streaming audio quality from Spotify, Tidal, etc. are actually people hearing the Universal label watermarking as a compression artifact.

The watermarking is constant, randomized audio scrambling in .08 second intervals at a bandwidth that lies in the hot spot of music content. Really destructive stuff. It exists independently of sample rate and bit rate. When such a huge swath of culturally prominent music is compromised, one could easily be fooled into thinking that's just what Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz sound like.

It's not just streaming either. When I was working in radio, they started putting it on promo CD's too.

[undergroundrailroad]

So will purchased downloads feature it or not?

They shouldn't.