Manfred Eicher, head of the record label ECM, is 80 years old. He inspires the program to this day.
ECM, the abbreviation for “Edition of Contemporary Music”, stands for an artistic attitude. For perhaps the most idiosyncratic, yet most striking record label in the international music world. Manfred Eicher is the name of the man who called it onto the scene in Munich in 1969, away from the mainstream. Who made listening to music more immersive, wider, deeper. A few names of composers and performers testify: Keith Jarrett, Meredith Monk and Arvo Pärt, András Schiff and Jan Garbarek, Gidon Kremer, Chick Corea, Steve Reich and Pat Metheny. They generate the recordings at ECM solely from their perspective as musicians, apart from marketing, trends or fashions.