11 Facts About ECM Records

ECM Records is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969.

ECM Records's motto is "the most beautiful sound next to silence", taken from a 1971 review of ECM Records releases in Coda, a Canadian jazz magazine.

Manfred Eicher continues to take an active interest in the music released by ECM Records, acting as producer of the vast majority of its recordings, although Steve Lake, Thomas Stoewsand, Robert Hurwitz, Lee Townsend, Hans Wendl and Sun Chung have produced discs for the label.

The typical ECM Records session is just three days: two days to record, one day to mix.

ECM Records later recorded several classical works by Bach, Mozart, Shostakovich, and others for the series.

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On many releases, the orientations towards jazz and classical music of ECM Records are combined: For example, Garbarek's Officium features him playing saxophone solos over the Hilliard Ensemble singing Gregorian chant, early polyphony and Renaissance works.

On November 14, 2017, ECM Records announced in a press release that its entire catalog would be made available for streaming on all major music streaming platforms.

Previously, ECM Records recordings had never been available for streaming, save for a few select compilations of major performers.

Furthermore, ECM Records has many projects and albums dedicated to people involved with motion pictures.

In Spring 2013 ECM Records released the record La notte by Ketil Bjørnstad which took its inspiration from Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni; its title and cover were taken from the 1961 movie of the same name.

Besides these movies, ECM Records has released concert videos of Karaindrou, Marc Sinan, Keith Jarrett solo and with his Standards trio.