Д.Д.

I buy CDs if they are not available on streaming services - and a lot of the stuff I listen to is still not (e.g. EMANEM releases, some classical music labels). I don't buy second-hand CDs unless they are OOP.

Yes, thanks. Put it into my bandcamp wishlist. I have exactly one Relative Pitch release, the Butcher-Edwards-Sanders trio, good stuff. There are a few more that look interesting, will get them eventually. Talking about Bandcamp, got the Tarfala Trio (Gustafsson - Guy - Strid) "Syzygy" (otherwise available as LP only on No Business). Impressive. https://nobusinessrecords.bandcamp.com/album/syzygy

Yes. It is mostly quite austere stuff, particularly the later releases. On a more humane side: 1. Madly You - Daunik Lazro, Carlos Zingaro, Joëlle Léandre, Paul Lovens. You can't go wrong with the combination of Lazro and Zingaro. I remember Joe McPhee telling me how great Lazro is and how much he enjoyed playing with him. 2. exaltatio utriusque mundi - Frédéric Blondy, Lê Quan Ninh - for phenomenal and absolutely unique drums (mostly just one bass drum, to be precise) playing by Lê Quan Ninh. The first track is so-so with Blondy and Ninh looking for the right balance, but from then on (when Ninh clearly starts leading) it's fantastic. 3. Stengam - Cor Fuhler. As mentioned above, an absorbing solo piano masterpiece. 4. Ichnites - Pascal Battus, Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour. Battus is playing "rotating surfaces" here, i.e. various objects pressed upon rotating parts of thrashed walkmans, and the breadth and warmth of sounds he extracts has to be heard to be believed. Works great with saxophonist Abdelnour. I find this a surprisingly joyful and entertaining record. Squidco has some samples: http://www.squidco.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=12910&Store_Code=S&search=pascal+battus&offset=&filter_cat=0&PowerSearch_Begin_Only=0&sort=&range_low=&range_high=&srch_name=1&srch_artist=1&srch_personnel=1

Potlatch has a sale in September - each CD is 10 euro, worldwide shipping included: http://www.potlatch.fr/ . A lot of good stuff on the label.

I just checked - Sclavis is actually from Lyon as well and he did work with Portal in 1970s: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Sclavis

This is a strange proposition. Is everybody supposed to be playing with everybody? And if musicians don't this absolutely has to do with them belonging to warring cliques? For one thing, there is geography - Bolcato lived (still lives?) in Lyon (440 km from Paris) for example. Sclavis and Portal definitely worked with each other, there are releases with them both, moreover there were live gigs, one of which I saw in Paris in 1999 or 2000. Not every live gig is recorded and released.

Yes, good one too, and yes, seems difficult to find now.

"Stengam" on Potlatch, there are some samples here: http://www.squidco.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=07824&Store_Code=S&search=Cor+Fuhler&offset=&filter_cat=&PowerSearch_Begin_Only=&sort=code.desc&range_low=&range_high=&srch_name=1 And I like these two on his own Conundrom label: https://conundrom.bandcamp.com/album/crax https://conundrom.bandcamp.com/album/mp

Just learnt that Cor Fuhler died in July. Such an original voice. His Conundrom label releases are very much worth exploring: https://conundrom.bandcamp.com/ And MoovSpot on Musica Genera: http://www.musicagenera.net/record_mg008.html and fantastic Stengam on Potlatch. And many more.

Nice, did not expect anybody to mention Olivia Block on this board. I guess you might have seen there is one copy available for sale at Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/10959607?ev=rb You could also try sending a message to the Discogs members who have this CD: https://www.discogs.com/release/stats/10959607#collection. I do it occasionally, and more often than not receive offers in response. And you might also want to check with Ms Block herself: https://www.oliviablock.net/contact-1

Gavriil Popov - Symphony 1. Excellent! https://open.spotify.com/album/38CI1j5bl0PLICuaMfCVbh

Yes, this one is excellent.

"Tone Hunting" is OK. Same configuration (as, tr, b, dr) and very similar concept and style - but better execution (IMHO), and definitely better sound on early Clean Feed release "Transit" by Jeff Arnal (outstanding drummer, does not seem to be active - as a musician, that is - anymore), Nate Wooley, Seth Misterka and Reuben Radding: https://cleanfeed-records.com/product/transit/ On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5Ds2YsFQaVkx9xhdD1BbGy

This one is very nice: https://lazrosantacruzwodrascka.bandcamp.com/album/ajmilive-19 Lazro - Wodrasczka - Santacruz Also available on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6rN8ZlhOEn7N6h4cEIGg3E

Yeah. Bought quite a few Beads on TMM festival in Berlin in 2008, all were excellent.

Jost Gebers probably has loads of tapes of never-released live stuff.

482 Music was an excellent label, its earlier releases in particular. It's a shame it folded. The music is there on streaming platforms.

Nice

Love Simmons! Don't forget his (eight!) Cosmosamatics quartet releases (with Michael Marcus).

Mark Dresser's solo bass record "Unveil" is great, I am listening to it often: https://cleanfeed-records.com/product/unveil/

Well, I am not saying there is anything wrong with the answer. But I thought it's interesting that we are discussing an extremely prolific label known for its trademark sound created by a leader who produced 90% of its releases - and you select three albums that were not produced by this producer as your favorites.

It's interesting that out of 1.5K ECM titles you selected three that were not produced by Eicher. I listend to that Dejohnette album only once, but I thought it was pretty weak with Dejohonette not fitting well with reeds players and predictable lazy solos from all involved.

Nah let’s not. Let’s call it beautiful music. You talk like you are talking facts and your not. Also there’s not a really hard definition of creativity so yeah you can stretch that a lot. Ah and what if she’s not creative? Is still don’t give a damn. I still enjoy it, because to me it’s still beautiful music. To met it’s dark, atmospheric and melancholic and I like it a lot. Well, I would not have put "IMHO" if I thought I was stating a fact. I was just referring to your use of the word "creative" to describe ECM. As far as I am concerned (IMHO, you see), most of ECMs are the exact opposite of creative. This is formulaic recessed background music with the remaining faint signs of life sucked out of it by horrible post-production. I am actually quite comfortable making such a generalization because most of the ECM productions sound very uniform. There are a few exceptions, of course. There is a lot of more "creative" (and yes, there is actually a definition for every English word, the simple Google one "relating to or involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to create something" is just fine) - and better sounding - music released by other, much less known, labels (this is not a fact, this is IMHO as well). In somewhat similar aesthetic, there is nuscope label, for example:

Yeah, a good illustration of nauseating ECM blandness, this one. It is very cute, let's call it that. Calling it creative would be a very liberal stretch of a definition, IMHO. But ECM New Series actually does have some interesting releases (among the tepidness of endless Pärts and Kanchelis and Silvestrovs), such as this one, for example:

Coltrane and Giuffre were mastered from the original ORF recordings, not sure about Aylers but there is a mention that the release is authorized by his estate, perhaps there was some agreement with ESP Disk regarding source material for CD mastering. For Parker Savoy / Dial stuff the mastering source is in all probability a previously commercially released CD - what sort of ""remarkable" sound improvement can one expect?