ARILD ANDERSEN · PAOLO VINACCIA · TOMMY SMITH — In-House Science (2018) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Norwegian master bassist Arild Andersen’s trio with big-toned tenorist Tommy Smith and powerhouse drummer Paolo Vinaccia is one of the most viscerally exciting jazz small groups of the present moment. Its energies are arguably best captured in a live context, and here the three musicians deliver a characteristically smoking performance at the Villa Rothstein in Bad Ischl, Austria, recorded in September 2016. Their earlier concert recording Live At Belleville, was issued a decade ago to rave reviews and a shower of awards. “Absolutely and unreservedly marvellous” said the BBC Music Magazine. “How often do just three musicians produce music as vast and panoramic in its scale and vision?” asked Jazzwise, amazed. ECM
Tracklist :
1.    Mira    9:50
2.    Science    11:10
3.    Venice    8:44
4.    North Of The North Wind    8:35
5.    Blussy    8:59
6.    In-House    8:10
Credits :
Design – Sascha Kleis
Double Bass, Music By – Arild Andersen
Drums – Paolo Vinaccia
Tenor Saxophone – Tommy Smith

STEFANO BATTAGLIA — Racolto (2006) 2CD | Two Version | APE + FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

Milanese pianist and composer Stefano Battaglia has walked on both sides of the classical and jazz street with ease and comfort. Whether performing Bill Evans or Pierre Boulez, he plays with integrity and authority. The double-disc Raccolto is his ECM debut, and he performs in two different settings to illustrate his tremendous gifts as both an improviser and a composer. His romantic leanings and sometimes pointillistic playing reveal his influences, from Evans to Paul Bley to Keith Jarrett. He carries his mentors with ease inside his gig bag. Disc one showcases Battaglia in a jazz trio setting with bassist Giovanni Maier and percussionist Michele Rabbia (who plays on both discs). Here, lush lyricism folds into free improvisation as the dreamy movement between the opening title cut gives way to the long, abstract "Triangolazioni." And though the latter track is completely outside, it has no edges, no burrs, no dissonances that are not enveloped inside the whole. Likewise, the skeletal space of "Triosonic" provides breathing room in contrast to the dense, more fluid post-bop improvisation in "All Is Language," where Battaglia dazzles with his multivalent ostinati. The second disc in this collection features Rabbia and Battaglia with violinist Dominique Pifarély, a member of Louis Sclavis' group. These 12 tunes are full of bracing improvisations and textural tension. The edgy "Porquoi?" and the hissing string introduction to "Il Circo Ungherese" are enough to send most jazz fans screaming for the hills. Those new music fans who haven't heard Pifarély or Battaglia before will be delighted at their structured approach to the outside. There is no self-indulgence here, only disciplined listening and authoritative execution. These 12 pieces are without reservation explorations into unknown sounds and combinations of sounds. The two discs together are all but irresistible to fans of the new European music. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist 1 :
1.    Raccolto    5:43
2.    Triangolazioni    14:42
3.    Triosonic I    3:47
4.    All Is Language    11:01
5.    Our Circular Song    4:25
6.    Coro    4:24
7.    Triosonic II    1:22
8.    In Front Of The Fourth Door    4:33
9.    L'osservanza    4:21
Tracklist 2 :
1.    Lys    5:02
2.    Canto I (Dell'agonia Della Terra)    4:11
3.    Riconoscenza    4:05
4.    Réminiscence Pour Violon Et Piano    4:09
5.    Pourquoi?    3:47
6.    Il Circo Ungherese    3:27
7.    Veritas    1:55
8.    Velario De Marzo    5:04
9.    Recitativo In Memoria Di Luciano Berio    5:40
10.    Canto II (Dell'agonia Dei Cieli)    3:01
11.    Trois Brouillons    6:02
12.    ... Dulci Declinant Lumina Somno ...    3:53
Credits :
Design – Sascha Kleis
Double Bass – Giovanni Maier (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9)
Music By – Dominique Pifarély (tracks: 2-1 to 2-12), Giovanni Maier (tracks: 1-3 to 1-5, 1-7, 1-8), Michele Rabbia (tracks: 1-3 to 1-5, 1-7, 1-8, 2-1 to 2-3, 2-5 to 2-7, 2-9 to 2-12), Stefano Battaglia
Percussion – Michele Rabbia
Piano – Stefano Battaglia
Violin – Dominique Pifarély (tracks: 2-1 to 2-12) 

STEFANO BATTAGLIA · MICHELE RABBIA — Pastorale (2010) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

In this beautiful duo album by two of Italy’s most creative musicians, roles are frequently overturned, as lyrical percussion shades into electronics and texture turns to melody. Stefano Battaglia reminds us that the piano is also a percussion instrument and Michele Rabbia is sensitive to all the tonal implications of drums and cymbals. The musicians play with and without scores in material that is variously open-form, tightly-controlled, inspired by folk idioms, by liturgical music and by art installations. Battaglia allows beautiful themes to ripple through the work, and sounds are given room to blossom. Duets for piano and percussion have long represented an important zone in the work of Stefano Battaglia (in the early 1990s, he collaborated with both Tony Oxley and Pierre Favre). Since 2000, Michele Rabbia has been Battaglia’s principal percussionist, appearing on both of his previous ECM releases – “Raccolto” and “Re: Pasolini” – as an ensemble member and fellow improviser. On “Pastorale” the musicians shape the music together. ECM
Tracklist :
1.    Antifona Libera (A Enzo Bianchi)    6:28
2.    Metaphysical Consolations    5:59
3.    Monasterium    3:55
4.    Oracle    2:28
5.    Kursk Requiem    3:58
6.    Cantar Del Alma    8:05
7.    Spirits Of Myths    4:50
8.    Pastorale    7:00
9.    Sundance In Balkh    5:50
10.    Tanztheater (In Memory Of Pina Bausch)    9:48
11.    Vessel Of Magic    2:56
Credits :
Design – Sascha Kleis
Music By – Michele Rabbia (tracks: 2 to 7, 9 to 11), Stefano Battaglia
Percussion, Electronics – Michele Rabbia
Piano, Piano [Prepared Piano] – Stefano Battaglia
Producer – Manfred Eicher
Text By [Goraknath, English Translation] – Steve Lake (2)
Text By [Poem In Booklet, German] – Rainer Maria Rilke
Text By [R.M. Rilke, English Translation] – Graham Good (2)
Text By [Text In Booklet] – Gorakhnath

STEFANO BATTAGLIA TRIO — The River of Anyder (2011) Two Version | FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

The pure water of the Anyder River flowered through Sir Thomas Moore’s “Utopia”. Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia celebrates it and other mythical and legendary locations in a trio recording of new compositions which spurn self-conscious modernity: “I pushed myself to write songs and dances uninfluenced by the sophistication of contemporary musical languages, striving to shape pieces that might have been played on archaic instruments a thousand years ago.” If the piano trio is itself a modern institution and the group understanding that Battaglia, Maioere and Dani share cannot help but be of-the-moment, Battaglia has nonetheless made an album that feels “timeless”. ECM

Italian pianist and composer Stefano Battaglia has recorded three previous offerings for ECM, all in different settings. Interestingly, The River of Anyder is his first to feature his trio, with bassist Salvatore Maiore and drummer/percussionist Roberto Dani. Battaglia, formerly a classical pianist, approaches composition and improvisation from that vantage point. When he does enter the jazz realm, it is through Italy's own grand jazz tradition from the '70s era on. The album was recorded in 2009 and produced by Manfred Eicher at Lugano's Radiotelevisione Svizzera. Location matters, because the silences and spaces on this set are much warmer, and more intimate, than those Eicher usually gets in his Netherlands studio. The ten selections here are all titled for mythical geographies inspired by literary sources as diverse as Thomas More, J.R.R. Tolkein, Rumi, Rimbaud, Black Elk, Hildegard Von Bingen, and Francis Bacon. Battaglia begins the set with "Minas Tirith," introduced by hushed cymbals and a series of skeletal triads, Maiore enters playing the same note pattern, accenting and syncopating before Battaglia lets the still sparse, regal body of the tune come to the fore. The title piece features a near-classical solo prelude for an intro. When Maiore's bass enters with big wooden tones, the work begins to unfold as a minor-key lyric melody, full of elliptical, implied runs on the piano that are actually given forward movement by Dani's drums and percussion. The Rumi-inspired pieces like "Ararat Dance," for starters, find the pianist beginning his jazz ascent, taking a more prominent role, and double-timing his rhythm section with stellar arpeggios and ostinati. "Sham-Bha-Lah," one of the three longest tracks (which are all in the middle of the album), offers skeletal, harmonic frameworks that are fleshed out by drones from Maiore and circular rhythms from Dani. Inspired by von Bingen's "Columba Aspexit" plainchant sequence, Battaglia builds extended modes and knotty half-step arpeggios from her work. "Bensalem" (a mythical island of Atlantis) is the most straight-ahead tune here with pianist and rhythm section engaging one another in a songlike construct that flows openly and freely. Battaglia returns to Rumi in "Ararat Prayer" near the album's close. His minor-key melodic and modal inventions are simultaneously mysterious, fluid, and rhythmic, with gorgeous percussion work from Dani. The River of Anyder is an excellent addition to Battaglia's ECM catalog to be sure; more importantly, however, it is a fine showcase for the power, drama, and discipline of this trio in a recording studio. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1.    Minas Tirith    7:32
2.    The River Of Anyder    7:01
3.    Ararat Dance    8:49
4.    Return To Bensalem    7:40
5.    Nowhere Song    2:18
6.    Sham-bha-lah    15:00
7.    Bensalem    12:13
8.    Anagoor    11:07
9.    Ararat Prayer    6:20
10.    Anywhere Song    1:11
Credits :
Design – Sascha Kleis
Double Bass – Salvatore Maiore
Drums – Roberto Dani
Liner Notes [Anywhere Song] – Oglala Sioux Black Elk
Liner Notes [Ararat Dance] – Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Liner Notes [Bensalem] – Francis Bacon 
Liner Notes [Nowhere Song] – Arthur Rimbaud
Liner Notes [Sham-bha-lah] – Hildegard von Bingen
Liner Notes [The River Of Anyder] – Thomas Moore
Piano, Music By – Stefano Battaglia
Producer – Manfred Eicher

STEFANO BATTAGLIA TRIO — Songways (2013) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia and his trio develop directions established on their acclaimed 2011 release “The River of Anyder” with a new selection of chants, hymns and dances, all written by Battaglia and inspired by descriptions of visionary places from art and literature – from Alfred Kubin, Jonathan Swift or Charles Fourier to Italo Calvino. “Songways” finds “a new harmonic balance between archaic modal pre-tonal chant and dances, pure tonal songs and hymns and abstract texture,” Battgalia says, “thus documenting the natural development of the Trio life, with a larger space for action from the drums”.ECM

In some ways, Songways is a logical extension of the Stefano Battaglia Trio's immediate predecessor, 2011's River of Anyder. It is only the second date by this fine trio, whose other members are bassist Salvatore Mairoe and drummer Roberto Dani. On River of Anyder, the group established a rich harmonic language that balanced lyric composition with ranging improvisation. If anything, that balance is retained here, but also encompasses a larger harmonic world. Once more recorded at the warm, natural-sounding Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera in Lugano, Battaglia again sought literary references to open up his music. The fictional created a musical geography in Battaglia's imagination to compose terrains for the trio to explore. On Songways, Battaglia's tunes free up Dani -- almost entirely -- from the confines of the timekeeping. Here he functions primarily as a deft texturalist and imaginative colorist -- he only seemingly keeps time on a couple of cuts. Check the way his exquisite cymbal work erases margins between space, color, and melody in opener "Euphonia Elegy." As Battaglia's rustling arpeggios offer a direction, Mairoe picks it up and develops a melody around which the pianist responds and then travels. Dani's cymbals accent, highlight, whisper, rumble, and echo throughout, keeping the songlike nature of the lyricism from ever becoming fixed. Dani does keep time on "Ismaro," titled for the city Odysseus attacked in Homer's poem. Its near-folk melody is stated by the pianist with the bassist helping to create a kind of bridge, but that's a feint; it's only the marker for the improvisation to begin. The title track nods to Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, but it is also influenced by that dialogic narrative that exists in the geographies between and shared by Battaglia's new forms and modern jazz. The pianist uses phrases from hymnody and juxtaposes them against post-bop amid an elegant flurry of arpeggios as Mairoe provides pulse and lyric counterpoint. "Vondervotteimittis," titled for the clock-obsessed town in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Devil in the Belfry, and "Monte Analogo" named for René Daumal's novel, are the two pieces here in which Battaglia's piano provides a conscious dissonance as a melodic device. Dani's bells, cymbals, and rumbling tom-toms highlight the tension and drama, but are countered by the more gently inquisitive investigations from Mairoe. On "Babel Hymn," Dani's tom-toms offer movement and drama. The modal inquiry by Battaglia is underscored by an insistent yet unobtrusive lyric repetition from Mairoe, who ever so slowly opens up the frame for the tune to move further afield. Songways is European jazz rooted deep in the Italian tradition: it wears both its classicism and post-vanguard lyricism plainly, in the process creating a deft, instinctive, and highly expressionistic music. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1.    Euphonia Elegy    12:11
2.    Ismaro    5:09
3.    Vondervotteimittis    7:22
4.    Armonia    13:50
5.    Mildendo Wide Song    6:08
6.    Monte Analogo    6:51
7.    Abdias    3:40
8.    Songways    8:42
9.    Perla    5:17
10.    Babel Hymn    8:52
Credits :
Design – Sascha Kleis
Double Bass – Salvatore Maiore
Drums – Roberto Dani
Piano, Music By – Stefano Battaglia
Producer – Manfred Eicher 

STEFANO BATTAGLIA TRIO — In The Morning (Music Of Alec Wilder) (2015) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

On his sixth album for ECM the Italian pianist and his trio reflect on the work of American composer Alec Wilder (1907 – 1980). “I first came into a more direct contact with Alec Wilder’s music in the early 90s, when I was performing his Sonata for Oboe and Piano and his Sonata for Horn and Piano”, Battaglia remembers. “I had already known some of his popular songs like ‘While We’re Young’, Blackberry Winter’ and ‘Moon and Sand’ through the intense versions Keith Jarrett has recorded. But after working on Wilder’s chamber music I wanted to develop a deeper connection with his intriguing musical universe, and I’ve discovered an immense hidden treasure.”
Almost three years after their last ECM album ‘Songways’, Battaglia and his partners Salvatore Maiore (bass) and Roberto Dani (drums) develop an almost telepathic rapport on In The Morning, a live recording from April 2014 at Teatro Vittoria in Torino. “My take on Alec Wilder is completely focused on the melodic aspect… after twenty years of study I can totally identify with this music”, Battaglia emphasizes. ECM
Tracklist :
1.    In The Morning    11:56
2.    River Run    13:17
3.    Moon And Sand    6:41
4.    When I Am Dead My Dearest    4:02
5.    The Lake Isle Of Innisfree    15:41
6.    Where Do You Go?    6:29
7.    Chick Lorimer    11:28
Credits :
Piano, Arranged By – Stefano Battaglia
Design – Sascha Kleis
Double Bass – Salvatore Maiore
Drums – Roberto Dani
Management [Director (Torino Jazz Festival)] – Stefano Zenni
Music By – Alec Wilder

STEFANO BATTAGLIA — Re: Pasolini (2007) 2CD | Two Version | APE + FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

In his second ECM album Italy’s Stefano Battaglia honours his countryman Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), one of the great European filmmakers of the 20th century, as well as a distinguished poet, novelist, playwright, philosopher, journalist, painter – and political activist. Few artists of any nationality have taken on as much as the outspoken, controversial, intensively creative Pasolini. It was precisely the scope of Pasolini’s work and his tumultuous life that attracted and inspired pianist-composer-improviser Battaglia. “What made the challenge of ‘interpreting’ Pasolini musically irresistible for me was this feeling for his unitas multiplex, his extraordinary capacity to bring opposites into coexistence. Not only academic and popular culture, or the sacred and profane, but also political, ethical and religious issues. Pasolini was adept in many mediums, each of his arts influenced the other, intermeshing and blending together to communicate his message in the most varied ways. “ ECM

To call Stefano Battaglia's Re: Pasolini on ECM, ambitious would be an erroneous understatement. In fact, it is an undertaking of enormous propensity. In the United States, Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) is known primarily as a filmmaker, whose works such as the Decameron, Canterbury Tales, Medea, and the notorious Salo (based on the Marquis de Sade's mammoth encyclopedic novel of perversion and violence, the 120 Days of Sodom, reset in the Italian countryside during the Second World War). He was in fact, a true renaissance man in the grand Italian tradition and was widely known as one: he was a popular poet, playwright, journalist, novelist, actor, painter, linguist and a truly controversial political activist who also challenged the Italian government, the Church and consumerist Italy openly. He was brutally murdered on an empty beach on the evening of All Saints Day (the murder has never been fully explained). Pasolini was a giant figure, a near mythic figure in Italian society and an aesthetic giant in all of Europe. So how does one represent such a figure in music? Battaglia has decided to look at Pasolini's life and work in equal measure. He celebrates and examines them so closely in his medium, so as to be as close to the inside eye of the artist -- and perhaps the man -- as is possible. Over two discs, he uses two different ensembles to meditate upon the legacy left by this great and tragic artist through his chosen medium: a music that combines in equal parts jazz, classical, and improvisation. Disc one features a sextet that includes trumpeter Michael Gassman who has been collaborating with Battaglia for 15 years. The other members of this first ensemble include Mirco Mariotinni on clarinet, cellist Aya Shimura, bassist Salvatore Majore, and drummer Roberto Dani. The music here is lighter; reflective, melodic even at its moodiest. The opening track "Canzone di Laura Betti," is a song inspired by Pasolini's muse, an actress who worked not only with him but also Bernardo Bertolucci, Alberto Rosselini Federico Fellini and other great Italian directors. Led so beautifully by the piano, the tune serves the deep lyricism of the truly Italian form of jazz, cinema music and the ballads sung by traditional Italian singers, and even opera arias. The cello lilts in and around the piano as it quietly digs into the lyric line and celebrates it to brushed drums and a simple bassline. This gorgeous piece reflects on the actress in a nearly spiritual manner. Other tunes here reflect poems written by Pasolini, and the place of actors he worked with, and the fifth cut, "Fevrar," is named for one of Pasolini's poems. Battaglia uses it as an implement for melodic improvisation on a rural landscape. Sparse, nearly skeletal lyric lines open mysteriously and are commented upon by Majore's bassline, a tapped bell on a cymbal, and intermittent trumpet lines that last only moments. The droning repetition of the bassline suggests the rhythmic line of a poem even as it opens out onto another musical vista, where it never strays far from the emptiness and elegance of the landscape. The entire disc reflects the aspects of his subject's character, an artist and man for whom tenderness, classicism, romanticism and nostalgia were motivating factors and states of being The second disc is another matter altogether as Battaglia teams with members of Louis Sclavis' band -- Dominique Pifarély (violin), Bruno Chevillon (bass), and Vincent Courtois (cello) -- along with drummer and percussionist Michele Rabbia offer a much darker, more improvisational -- and at times tenser -- meditation on less pleasurable aspects of Pasolini's life and the often radical nature of his work: his troubled relationship to the Roman Church and his radical politics that were truly committed to a working prole (during the student strikes and riots in Italy in 1969 he backed the police over students because the former were true working men and the students "pampered boys," the leftists backed the students) and railed against the kind of materialism that gave way to consumerism and, he claimed, ruined Italian society. This is chamber music that walks a thin and blurred line between classical music and free improvisation: not free jazz. It courts tension. It is fully engaged, with sometimes-heated dialogue between musicians, but it is also dirge-like in places, brooding and full of uneasy space. It feels like an elegy. Its pieces wind through and around an eight-piece "Lyria" of shorter works. This reflects both the scenic work of the cinema and the episodic nature of epic Italian poetry that often ends in tragedy. Here "Ostia" (named for the beach where Pasolini was killed) -- the only long work on disc two and its second from last cut -- is full of ambiguity, darkness and open space between the lower register chords of Battaglia's piano and the alternately mysterious strings. The set ends with a sorrowful, melodic ballad that is as moving as the final cue of a soundtrack as it plays the final credits, the last moments of an opera that ends in tragedy. It is one that denotes memory, dignity, and loss. Battaglia has achieved his ambitious aim. His devotion to the work of his subject has moved through him and inhabited him. Not as a ghost, but as a Muse who speaks through his compositions and the truly empathic communication of both these groups. As a true bonus, Battaglia annotates his liner notes, track by track, exhaustively, offering their sources and inspirations as further information. America may have known Pasolini as an art house filmmaker; via Battaglia's Re: Pasolini, he has become something more, something other, a force of the mythic universe. Battaglia's work is an epic, and yes, a masterpiece that is a force in and of itself to be reckoned with. It is the high point in an already celebrated career. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist 1 :
1.    Canzone Di Laura Betti    5:00
2.    Totò E Ninetto    4:47
3.    Canto Popolare    5:04
4.    Cosa Sono Le Nuvole    7:15
5.    Fevrar    9:10
6.    Il Sogno Di Una Cosa    4:49
7.    Teorema    10:41
8.    Callas    5:07
9.    Pietra Lata    10:08
Tracklist 2 :
1.    Lyra I    1:12
2.    Lyra II    3:34
3.    Meditazione Orale    5:24
4.    Lyra III    1:59
5.    Lyra IV    2:01
6.    Scritti Corsari    1:22
7.    Lyra V    2:20
8.    Epigrammi    2:27
9.    Lyra VI    1:33
10.    Setaccio    2:20
11.    Lyra VII    4:07
12.    Mimesis, Divina Mimesis    7:08
13.    Lyra VIII    5:35
14.    Ostia    11:22
15.    Pasolini    4:07
Credits :
Artwork [Cover] – Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cello – Aya Shimura (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9), Vincent Courtois (tracks: 2-1 to 2-15)
Clarinet [Clarinets] – Mirco Mariottini (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9)
Composed By – Domenico Modugno (tracks: 1-4), Pier Paolo Pasolini (tracks: 1-4), Stefano Battaglia (tracks: 1-1 to 1-3, 1-5 to 2-15)
Design – Sascha Kleis
Double Bass – Bruno Chevillon (tracks: 2-1 to 2-15), Salvatore Maiore (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9)
Drums – Roberto Dani (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9)
Percussion – Michele Rabbia (tracks: 2-1 to 2-15)
Piano – Stefano Battaglia
Piano [Prepared Piano] – Stefano Battaglia (tracks: 2-12)
Producer – Manfred Eicher, Stefano Battaglia
Trumpet – Michael Gassmann (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9)
Violin – Dominique Pifarély (tracks: 2-1 to 2-15)

STEFANO BATTAGLIA — Pelagos (2017) 2CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Stefano Battaglia plays both piano and prepared piano (sometimes simultaneously) in a highly attractive double-album programme that includes his own compositions and spontaneous improvisations as well as two versions of the Arabic traditional song “Lamma Bada Yatathanna”. The melodic and texturally-inventive pieces, some of almost hypnotic allure, were recorded both in concert and in “closed doors” sessions at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, Italy, in May 2016, and subsequently arranged into what Battaglia describes as “a wonderful new shape with a completely new dramaturgy” by producer Manfred Eicher. ECM
Tracklist 1 :
1.    Destino  6:19
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
2.    Pelagos  10:12
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
3.    Migralia  12:24
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
4.    Lamma Bada Yatathanna  4:51
Music By – Arabic Traditional Song
5.    Processional  5:24
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
6.    Halap  8:38
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
7.    Dogon  1:47
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
8.    Life  10:58
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
Tracklist 2 :
1.    Lampedusa  7:07
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
2.    Hora Mundi  14:06
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
3.    Lamma Bada Yatathanna (Var.)  3:37
Music By – Arabic Traditional Song
4.    Exilium  9:24
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
5.    Migration Mantra  11:33
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
6.    Horgos E Roszke 6:44
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
7.    Ufratu  5:36
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
8.    Heron  5:37
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
9.    Brenner Toccata  7:42
Music By – Stefano Battaglia
Credits :
Piano, Piano [Prepared Piano] – Stefano Battaglia 

EBERHARD WEBER — Yellow Fields (1976) Two Version | APE + FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

Since the 1970s when I first bought my copy of this LP, it has been my favorite Eberhard Weber recording, especially the second song on side one, 'Sand-Glass'. That song casts a spell, especially Weber's solos. Mariano's playing is also magical. This LP is a must for Eberhard Weber fans. Charles Freeland
Tracklist :
1.    Touch 4:59
 Eberhard Weber 
2.    Sand-Glass 15:31
 Eberhard Weber 
3.    Yellow Fields 10:04
 Eberhard Weber 
4.    Left Lane 13:37
 Eberhard Weber 
Credits :
Bass – Eberhard Weber
Drums – Jon Christensen
Keyboards – Rainer Brüninghaus
Producer [Produced By] – Manfred Eicher
Soprano Saxophone, Shenai, Nadaswaram [Nagaswaram] – Charlie Mariano

ARILD ANDERSEN GROUP — Affirmation (2022) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A masterpiece! Arild Andersen includes other masterful players like rising star and bandleader on his own, Marius Nesset on saxophones and another great bandleader, Helge Lien on piano. Haakon Mjaaset Johansen is also a master on drums and percussion. All contributes as composers and it is a joy to hear them playing together. Jan Stangeby Nielsen
Affirmation Part I    
1.    One    4:29
2.    Two     6:13
3.    Three    4:40
4.    Four    8:22
Affirmation Part II    
5.    Five    7:09
6.    Six    1:38
7.    Seven    5:23
8.    Short Story    7:27
Credits :
Double Bass – Arild Andersen
Drums – Håkon Mjåset Johansen
Music By – Andersen (tracks: 1 to 7), Arild Andersen (tracks: 8), Lien (tracks: 1 to 7), Mjåset Johansen (tracks: 1 to 7), Neset (tracks: 1 to 7)
Piano – Helge Lien
Tenor Saxophone – Marius Neset

MORTON FELDMAN : The Viola in My Life (Marek Konstantynowicz · Cikada Ensemble · Norwegian Radio Orchestra · Christian Eggen) (2001) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

After a long period of working with indeterminacy and graphic notation, Morton Feldman fixed every parameter of “The Viola in My Life” (written in 1970/71) – notes, timing, duration, dynamics – and still the feeling conveyed is of an exquisite tenuousness, as if the viola is a visitor to the composer’s musical universe, where sounds seem to be discovered in the quiet moment of their playing: “My intention was to think of melody and motivic fragments – somewhat in the way Robert Rauschenberg uses photographs in his painting – and superimpose this on a static sound world more characteristic of my music.”
‘Painting with sounds’ is central to Feldman’s music; he was a composer at least as close to the abstract painters as to musical contemporaries. ecm
MORTON FELDMAN (1926-1987)
1.    The Viola In My Life I    9:11
2.    The Viola In My Life II    10:18
3.    The Viola In My Life III    5:07
4.    The Viola In My Life IV    14:31
Credits :
Marek Konstantynowicz - Viola
Cikada Ensemble
Kersti Walldén - Flute
Terje Lerstad - Clarinet
Bjørn Rabben - Percussion
Kenneth Karlsson - Piano, Celesta
Odd Hannisdal - Violin
Morten Hannisdal -Violoncello
Norwegian Radio - Orchestra
Christian Eggen - Conductor

TOMASZ STAŃKO QUINTET – Dark Eyes (2009) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Dark places can be foreboding, and also comforting or beautiful if put into proper context. Trumpeter Tomasz Stanko has always used introspection as a means for making his music, but on this recording he's all but snuffed out the candlelight, inspired by the wispy smoke that trails to the ceiling. During the 2000s he retained a regular working band of very young musicians, and for Dark Eyes he's formed a new band of promising up-and-coming players from Northern Europe, with instrumentation modified from the piano/bass/drums backup trio. The very subtle Danish guitarist Jakob Bro (from Paul Motian's band), multiple competition prize-winner Finnish pianist Alexi Tuomarila, Danish electric bass guitarist Anders Christensen (ex-Ravonettes and Motian), and drummer Olavi Louhivuori (also an accomplished pianist, violinist, and cellist) from Finland are all new names to the ECM family, playing with extraordinary reserve and even a bit of reticence. That subtle sense of territorial division between the band and Stanko marks a new, still toned-down chapter for the Polish trumpeter, beyond his previous suspended night-shaded productions. "So Nice" is certainly all that, a pristine, slow, piano-lined piece with a solemn viewpoint. Inspired by the expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka, "The Dark Eyes of Martha Hirsch" evokes strong amounts of sunken sadness in a unison piano/guitar/trumpet line, while "Last Song" exudes a finality within the same type of democratic instrumental structure. Departing from feelings of gloom, the ambience remains, replaced with more joy during the pretty three-minute piece "May Sun" sans Stanko with Tuomarila's repeat piano lines tumbling down the stairs, while "Terminal 7" and "Grand Central," with a pedal point base, both ruminate with the flowing and always active, upbeat but never anxious metropolitan feel Stanko experiences in his second home, New York City. Two compositions by Krzysztof Komeda are included: the pitch-black "Dirge for Europe," similar to a Miles Davis construct with Bro's guitar as a mirrored observer in the background, and "Etuida Baletowa #3," the most pleasant piece of the date, nicely drawn in an authentic jazz ballad form. As Stanko's music is very consistent, it also is for listeners who are used to his style at the outset. With the late-night aspect emphasized and the ECM precept fully realized, Dark Eyes represents yet another triumph for this extraordinary artist, who always pulls back and digs deep into the wellspring of emotion with every passing moment. Michael G. Nastos
Tracklist :
1.    So Nice    5:52
2.    Terminal 7    5:30
3.    The Dark Eyes Of Martha Hirsch    10:03
4.    Grand Central    6:25
5.    Amsterdam Avenue    6:11
6.    Samba Nova    9:23
7.    Dirge For Europe    5:29
8.    May Sun    2:47
9.    Last Song    3:58
10.    Etiuda Baletowa No.3    5:49
Credits :
Composed By – Krzysztof Komeda (tracks: 7, 10), Tomasz Stańko (tracks: 1 to 6, 8, 9)
Design [Graphic] – Sascha Kleis
Drums – Olavi Louhivuori
Electric Bass – Anders Christensen
Guitar – Jakob Bro
Piano – Alexi Tuomarila
Producer – Manfred Eicher
Trumpet – Tomasz Stańko

JOE LOVANO — Homage (2025) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and Polish pianist Marcin Wasilewski reunite for their second collaboration, 2025's harmonically unfettered, free-leaning Homage. The album, which follows their 2022 duet Arctic Riff, builds nicely upon their intuitive sense of group interplay, moving between deftly composed works and wholly improvised ones. Joining them once again is Wasilewski's trio featuring bassist Sławomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michał Miśkiewicz. This is the same group that earned acclaim for their work with the late trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and who bring an equally empathetic approach to playing with Lovano. Cuts like the opening "Love in the Garden" and "Golden Horn" have a tender, sun-dappled quality that conjures a striking blend of John Coltrane and Duke Ellington's later career small group work. Equally evocative is "This Side - Catville" which evokes the swinging, off-kilter free bop of the Ornette Coleman quartet. Yet more esoteric are Lovano's two solo performances: the moody saxophone piece "Giving Thanks" and his textured percussion work on "Projection." While those solo tracks certainly pull the listener deeper into Lovano's dreamy, stream-of-consciousness lyricism, the album is most compelling when the players combine their voices. This is underscored on the title track, a free improvisation that finds Lovano spiraling melodic ideas off Wasilewski as the trio responds in kind. With Homage, Lovano and Wasilewski remain adventurous, kindred spirits. Matt Collar
Tracklist :
1.    Love In The Garden 4:11
Composed By – Zbigniew Seifert
2.    Golden Horn 10:20
Composed By – Joe Lovano
3.    Homage 8:00
Composed By – Joe Lovano
4.    Giving Thanks 2:25
Composed By – Joe Lovano
5.    This Side - Catville 12:00
Composed By – Joe Lovano
6.    Projection 2:03
Composed By – Joe Lovano
Credits :
Double Bass – Slawomir Kurkiewicz
Drums – Michal Miskiewicz
Piano – Marcin Wasilewski
Producer [Album Produced By] – Manfred Eicher
Tenor Saxophone, Tárogató [Tarogato], Gong [Gongs] – Joe Lovano

PAUL MOTIAN TRIO — It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago (1984) Two Version | FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

This trio, the root of the Paul Motian Quintet that also included the late Jim Pepper and bass player Ed Schuller, is among the most "songish" that ECM ever recorded. All three men are masters of understatement and heartbreakingly beautiful melodic invention, and also possess a collective well of deep lyricism in their improvisations. They had another thing in common, all having been sidemen for many years before becoming bandleaders in their own right. In fact, Lovano was only then, in 1984, beginning to consider himself a bandleader. There isn't a display of ego anywhere on this recording or the quintet's wonderful The Story of Maryam (Soul Note 1074). Motian is credited with all the compositions here, but it's obvious they come from the collective. While the title track that opens the record is full of the lilting melodic invention Frisell is well known for, it is actually the short sonorous lines that Lovano feeds to Motian that illumine the cut and give it its sense of open space and interval. "Fiasco" is a study in three part counterpoint: From Frisell to Motian to Lovano, the fury of the improvisation is tempered only by dynamic restraint and the intention on the part of the trio to hear the harmonics they are creating as microtones. Elsewhere, such as on "India" and the closer "Two Women of Padua," the tonal registers of the guitars and saxophone become the voices in "songs" offered up in different emotional and musical circumstances, but in the manner of singing nonetheless. Intervallic invention here becomes its own m.o. and, given the depth of melodic interplay, a fluid musicality is ensured. This is one of the finest recordings that came from ECM in the '80s. Paul Bley led another, which featured Motian and Frisell -- as well as John Surman. This set is made of the kind of music that made Manfred Eicher's ECM such a force to be reckoned with. It placed three musicians in a context that was comfortable enough to make them want to sing to one another.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <- 
Tracklist :
1.    It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago 6:06
Paul Motian 
2.    Fiasco 7:49
Paul Motian 
3.    Conception Vessel 4:31
Paul Motian 
4.    Introduction 3:05
Paul Motian 
5.    India  7:26
Paul Motian 
6.    In the Year of the Dragon 5:57
Paul Motian 
7.    Two Women from Padua  5:13
Paul Motian 
Credits : 
Drums, Percussion, Composed By, Photography By – Paul Motian
Guitar, Guitar Synthesizer – Bill Frisell
Tenor Saxophone – Joe Lovano 

MARC JOHNSON — Shades of Jade (2005) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This is a very mellow and very pretty album with Marc Johnson's wife, Eliane Elias, leading the proceedings with her elegiac piano. Featuring the restrained backing of both Joe Lovano and John Scofield. Atmospheric and mysterious. An excellent late night album. Robert Middleton 
Tracklist :
1.    Ton Sur Ton 5:55
Composed By – Eliane Elias, Marc Johnson 
2.    Apareceu 6:04
Composed By – Eliane Elias
3.    Shades Of Jade 7:40
Composed By – Eliane Elias, Marc Johnson 
4.    In 30 Hours 6:10
Composed By – Eliane Elias
5:    Blue Nefertiti 7:14
Composed By – Marc Johnson 
6.    Snow 8:24
Composed By – Eliane Elias
7.    Since You Asked 3:18
Composed By – Marc Johnson 
8.    Raise 6:35
Composed By – Marc Johnson 
9.    All Yours 4:11
Composed By – Eliane Elias
10.    Don't Ask Of Me (Intz Mi Khntrit) 5:13
Composed By [Armenian Song By] – Anton Mailyan
Credits :
Design [Cover Design] – Sascha Kleis
Double Bass – Marc Johnson 
Drums – Joey Baron
Guitar – John Scofield
Music By – Eliane Elias, Marc Johnson 
Organ – Alain Mallet
Piano – Eliane Elias
Producer – Eliane Elias, Manfred Eicher
Tenor Saxophone – Joe Lovano

JOHN SURMAN — Saltash Bells (2012) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

I first discovered the beauty of Surman's Jazz when I bought a copy of A Biography of the Rev. Absalom Dawe. Essentially, his performance on that LP was nothing short of brilliant. On his Saltash Bells LP he again applies his multi-instrumental, composing and performance skill with true aplomb. Borrowing a quote from Wikipedia, "This "extraordinary solo recording" Surman's "beautiful blend of reeds and electronics summons the mists, moors and mysteries with hauntingly evocative style"" Surman's musical interpretation of the Saltash Passage on the River Tavy conjures the many moods, shifts and subtle drama this area of England possesses. For me, the buy in comes easily. I simply close my eyes and allow the music to envelope me... Loving the deftly crafted songs to tell me their individual story as I, then, imagine the place, the time, the totality of the composition. My suggestion: Surman's style of Modal Jazz is pretty awesome. The atmospheric nature of his recordings makes for an often soothing listen. Consider exploring his entire catalog. For me, this one's a keeper. You may well agree. Cheers. Gary Figueroa 
Tracklist :
1.    Whistman's Wood    6:32
2.    Glass Flower    3:13
3.    On Staddon Heights    7:32
4.    Triadichorum    3:36
5.    Winter Elegy    8:19
6.    Ælfwin    2:17
7.    Saltash Bells    10:40
8.    Dark Reflections    3:27
9.    The Crooked Inn    2:41
10.    Sailing Westwards    10:37
Credits :
Design – Sascha Kleis
Producer [Produced By] – John Surman, Manfred Eicher
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Alto Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet, Harmonica, Synthesizer, Composed By [All Compositions – John Surman

MARC JOHNSON · ELIANE ELIAS — Swept Away (2012) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

No one familiar with the past work of bassist Marc Johnson and pianist Eliane Elias will be surprised to find that this album finds them working in an exploratory mode; Johnson has long been one of the most interesting bassists on the modern jazz scene, and Elias' résumé is all over the place. But the sweetness, the quiet, and the sometimes deeply haunting melancholy of Swept Away may catch listeners unawares. Elias and Johnson are joined here by the two musicians who are more perfectly suited to this type of project than any others on the scene today: saxophonist Joe Lovano (currently the go-to player for virtually every serious jazz session in New York) and the preternaturally sensitive drummer Joey Baron, a man who has made more session leaders sound wonderful over the past 20 years than any other. Baron and Johnson face a serious challenge on this program: the tempos are generally slow, the sense of swing sometimes nearly subliminal, and that puts bassists and drummers in an awkward position. But on tracks like "It's Time" and the lovely "B Is for Butterfly," they keep the thread steady and reliable without dictating a beat or drawing undue attention; when the time comes to lay down a solid groove (as on the wonderful "B Is for Butterfly"), they do so elegantly and seemingly without effort. Swept Away is the best example of what has come to be called "ECM jazz" -- quiet, spacious, and friendly, but complex as well and easily able to stand up to close listening. Rick Anderson
Tracklist :
1.    Swept Away    6:18
 Eliane Elias 
2.    It's Time    5:49
 Eliane Elias 
3.    One Thousand And One Nights    8:18
 Eliane Elias 
4.    When The Sun Comes Up    6:36
 Marc Johnson 
5.    B Is For Butterfly    8:05
 Eliane Elias 
6.    Midnight Blue    6:00
 Marc Johnson 
7.    Moments    5:50
 Eliane Elias 
8.    Sirens Of Titan    5:55
 Eliane Elias / Marc Johnson 
9.    Foujita    6:36
 Marc Johnson 
10.    Inside Her Old Music Box    5:27
 Eliane Elias / Marc Johnson 
11.    Shenandoah    4:35
 -Traditional
Credits :
Double Bass – Marc Johnson 
Drums – Joey Baron
Piano – Eliane Elias
Tenor Saxophone – Joe Lovano

NORMA WINSTONE · KIT DOWNES — Outpost Of Dreams (2024) FLAC 24-96Hz

Outpost of Dreams is the debut collaboration from vocalist/lyricist Norma Winstone and pianist/composer Kit Downes. Both are veteran ECM recordings artists. Winstone hasn't issued a title with the label since 2018's award-winning Descansado: Songs for Films, while Downes, active more recently, released Short Diary with Seb Roachford in 2023. This duo began playing shows together late in 2023 and continued into 2024. Winstone, a seven-decade veteran, has been the talk of Europe since Drake sampled Azimuth's (Winstone with Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor) "The Tunnel" for "IDGAF." Among this set's ten tunes are four originals by Downes and Winstone; her lyric contributions extend here to songs by Taylor, Carla Bley, Ralph Towner, and fiddler/composer Aidan O'Rourke. There are also two folk standards, "Black Is the Color" and "Rowing Home."

At this stage of her seven-decade career, Winstone is winning accolades for her writing as much as her supple singing -- her alto instrument is undiminished by time. In opener "El," Downes weaves impressionistic, mysterious chords in the upper-middle register as Winstone wanders with purpose inside and outside his cadences: "Stardust in the night will watch her grow/Soon become aware (constellations stare)/Everything that lives and breathes and loves filling the air…" "Fly the Wind," by Taylor and Winstone, is sprightly; it sounds like a show tune in the singer's phrasing, but Downes' pianism is rooted in modern jazz. Winstone's lyrics for Bley's "Jesus Maria" embrace its mutated two-chord theme and reflect an unknowable Christ figure as he inhabits and transcends time. Her words for Towner's iconic "Beneath an Evening Sky" chart the depth and strangeness of a woman's perpetual presence in the protagonist's wandering, solitary mind. Single "The Steppe" weds classical, jazz, and classic pop as a song of love and longing, offering: "Winds sweep across the plain/Where will I find you again/The path of a shooting star/The heart dare not follow/I'm lost in the vastness of you…I'm almost submerging/In this lonely outpost of dreams." Downes flows, circles, and swings around and through her delivery. There are few substandard versions of "Black Is the Color." This one, with Downes' ghostly, wandering pianism, first excavates, then all but conceals the melody as Winstone delivers this as a tool of discovery: in certain phrases, she pays tribute to Nina Simone's stellar recording. Downes is masterful; he never intrudes on Winstone's expression yet establishes the piano as a separate lyric voice. The closing traditional sea shanty "Rowing Home" is almost unrecognizable. Downes creates darkly tinged post-bop harmonics under the melody as Winstone improvises inside the words and phrases while changing the tune's shape with her vocalizing. Usually sung by fishermen returning home, this version comes from a bereft protagonist, and it is as poignant as it is resonant. Outpost of Dreams is a quiet, gentle, even tenderly poetic masterpiece that represents music-making as an organic yet adventurous hub of meaning. 
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <- 
Tracklist :
1.    El 5:05
Music By – Kit Downes
Words By – Norma Winstone
2.    Fly The Wind 3:11
Music By – John Taylor
Words By – Norma Winstone
3.    Jesus Maria 4:29
Music By – Carla Bley
Words By – Norma Winstone
4.    Beneath An Evening Sky 3:25
Music By – Ralph Towner
Words By – Norma Winstone
5.    Out Of The Dancing Sea 3:34
Music By – Aidan O'Rourke
Words By – Norma Winstone
6.    The Steppe 5:06
Music By – Kit Downes
Words By – Norma Winstone
7.    Nocturne 5:08
Music By – Kit Downes
Words By – Norma Winstone
8.    Black Is The Colour 4:34
 – Traditional
9.    In Search Of Sleep 3:06
Music By – Kit Downes
Words By – Norma Winstone
10.    Rowing Home 3:57
– Traditional
Arranged By [Arr.] – Bob Cornford
Words By – Norma Winstone
Credits :
Piano – Kit Downes
Producer [Produced By] – Manfred Eicher
Voice – Norma Winstone

JAN GARBAREK — All Those Born With Wings (1987) Two Version | APE + FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

On the hip with most of Garbarek's recordings, this one is airy and spacy -- belting out screaming sax lines over a drony sea of nothing. The word to describe this record is passionate. This is not background music like many of his other recordings tend toward. Fans of his playing on Paul Giger's Alpstein will appreciate this one. The five pieces here -- serially titled -- tend to blend together, giving the impression of one long song. Mark Allender
Tracklist :
1    1st Piece    6:09
2    2nd Piece    4:51
3    3rd Piece    7:38
4    4th Piece    6:34
5    5th Piece    12:54
6    6th Piece    5:09
Credits:
Saxophones, Flute, Emulator, Percussion, Music By – Jan Garbarek

PEROTIN — The Hilliard Ensemble (1989) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 Tracklist :
 1. Viderunt Omnes 11:36
(Perotin, Traditional)
2. Veni Creator Spiritus 7:29
 (Anonymus, Traditional)
3. Alleluia Posui Adiutorium 7:34
 (Perotin, Traditional)
4. O Maria Virginei 4:49
 (Anonymus, Traditional)
5. Dum Sigillum 7:37
 (Perotin, Traditional)
6. Isaias Cecinit 1:43
 (Anonymus, Traditional)
7. Alleluia Nativitas 8:31
 (Perotin, Traditional)
8. Beata Viscera 6:12
 (Perotin, Traditional)
9. Sederunt Principes 11:54
(Perotin, Traditional)
The Hilliard Ensemble :
David James - Countertenor
John Potter - Tenor
Rogers Covey-Crump - Tenor
Mark Padmore - Tenor
Charles Daniels - Tenor
Gordon Jones - Baritone
Paul Hillier - Baritone, Director