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The label of the personal

Germany

Chapeau : The story behind German independent music label, ECM

Source : Culture Europe International (http://www.culture-europe-international.org)
01 49 40 72 46 - contact@culture-europe-international.org
2, rue de la Liberté, 93526 Saint-Denis cedex 02

Rubrique : Revue de presse

du 05/02/2010 00:00 au 05/06/2010 00:00
Paris France



Texte : By RAY COMISKEY
The Irish Times
Ireland
January 26th, 2010
(extracts)

WHEN PRODUCER Manfred Eicher established the German independent music label, ECM – the letters stand for Edition of Contemporary Music – in 1969, there was, he says, “no plan, nothing”. He simply wrote to the musicians he had met on the road and asked whether they would be interested in recording for the new label.

Forty years on, ECM’s huge catalogue is extraordinarily diverse. Contemporary classical and improvised music, Gregorian chant, music inspired by Greek tragedy, settings of the writings of Sufi and Christian mystics, folk music from all over Europe, north Africa, the Middle East, genre-bending, cross-cultural music – all are part of ECM’s list. (...)

Talking about it, [Eicher] is animated and passionate. There is a sense that, intellectually and emotionally, this cultural diversity sustains him while giving focus to his work and his life. “I don’t know how people see it from the outside, but I do what I feel is courageous and personal music for recording,” he says. “I need music that speaks to me personally and where I feel that the people behind it, whether it’s a composer, or a group of people singing, or musicians per se, have something to offer that is personal.”

He stresses that last word, and it’s this approach which, for the all its genre diversity and multiculturalism, gives ECM’s catalogue its serendipitous coherence while leaving its capacity for surprise undiminished.(...)

“The way I see it, producing records for me,” he says, “is based on something like inhalation/exhalation. I’m a passionate musician and I have a lot of empathy for people. That means if I share an affinity with a musical idea and with a person, I would like to pull out as much as possible.

“And I would like to guide people also by helping them not only during the making of the music in the studio, but also already in a kind of researching of ideas, and of different kinds of musical landscape to formulate and bring it together. So we discuss this and go into the studio and start the next process.”(...)

One striking aspect of Eicher’s work is his affinity with Scandinavian musicians, especially those from Norway, whose work has a kind of purity of spirit, a sense that everything is transient, nothing is permanent, but you endure despite that. Is that how he sees it?

“When I was 20 I travelled for the first time to the north, to Tromsø, and since then I was kind of fascinated by the light,” he says. “So, from the beginning, that kind of landscape meant a lot. Later on I travelled to Sweden, and so the way you describe the cultural impact from these countries, in the music, the literature, Strindberg, Ibsen, or movies like Ingmar Bergman, that speaks what you say.

“But still there is no Scandinavian music per se,” he adds, “because there is also wonderful music from Poland. You can think about the Slavic element, the Baltic scene, Hungarian music, Kurtág, Bartók, others. So what became Scandinavian in terms of the music landscape, let’s say, in the last 40 years, since we worked on it, has also to do with our impact and my personal affinity for this music. Because I met with Jan Garbarek in Bologna and decided we do recordings together. We became friends. And we have changed something together in Norway’s music landscape. And with the following group that developed out of this first idea, we have done something with Swedish musicians like Bobo Stenson, Bernt Rosengren and all those kinds of things. But my guidance was more to Norway.”

With Garbarek’s help, this guidance has fostered several generations of Norwegian musicians with an increasing awareness of the country’s rich folk-music heritage, personified by the outstanding Hardanger fiddle player, Nils Økland. This influence is another example of the impact Eicher has had on European music.(...)

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Date de publication : 26/01/2010


Période traitée : 2010-01-26
Mots-clés : Manfred Eicher, Edition of Contemporary Music, ECM, Contemporary classical and improvised music, Gregorian chant, music inspired by Greek tragedy, settings of the writings of Sufi and Christian mystics, folk music from all over Europe, north Africa, the Middle East, genre-bending, cross-cultural music, Jan Garbarek, the Slavic element, the Baltic scene, Hungarian music, Kurtág, Bartók, Scandinavian music
Inséré le : 05/02/2010 14:52