Hymns and Spheres

I love the internet.

There, I said it.

...

About ECM Records (Wikipedia):

Founded in Munich by producer Manfred Eicher in 1969, ECM has released more than 1000 albums spanning many idioms. Establishing an early reputation with standard-setting jazz and improvised music albums, ECM began to include contemporary composition in its programme in the late 1970s, and in 1984 a sister label, ECM New Series, was launched. The quality of ECM albums at all levels -- from musicianship, production and engineering to cover art -- has been widely recognised and the label has collected many awards.
[...]
The label has been hailed, by UK newspaper The Independent, as ''the most important imprint in the world for jazz and new music.''

So that's the official word on ECM Records; the unofficial one is that despite the occasional gem of rare beauty and importance, they are the perpetrators of the most vile, offensively-inoffensive easy-listening inconsequentialities in the known universe. Often this "genre" is referred to in disapprobation as "Scandinavian Jazz". See Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Pat Metheny, Arild Andersen, et. al. See for e.g. this review at Amazon of Stephan Micus' Desert Poems:

I imagine that Micus (or at least ECM) is frustrated that his albums are tossed into the New Age section at the record store alongside outright dreck like Enya and Yanni..

(I imagine that Micus -- or at least ECM -- are bloody-well used to it by now.)

It's no stretch to add that in addition to the list above, one of the most (in)famous perpetrators of this awful muck is Keith Jarrett, whose The Koln Concert is in turn one of the finest examples of said muck; a meandering, unfocused, mess of cheesy improvised cheap-TV-soundtrack sentimental piano, accompanied by embarrassing jazz-vocal outbursts. No stretch at all. To the extent that indeed, The Koln Concert can be said to epitomise all that is rotten in the state of Denmark.

(That was a joke. Denmark? "Scandinavian Jazz"? Need I go on?)

It's always good -- actually, it's always fucking awesome -- when something comes along that totally destroys your preconception about how something, somebody, some -- anything -- is. And so it was when Jani Hellen turned me on to Keith Jarrett's Hymns and Spheres album, which is from roughly the same time as the reviled Koln Concert record, but the diametric-opposite to that debacle; primarily, incredible.

I love organs. I love the vast ouvre of Olivier Messiaen. I love Gyorgy Ligeti and I love Romantic organ music. No, not lounge-lizard covers of classic love-songs. Romantic Organ Music -- think Cesar Franck, Franz Liszt, Charles-Marie Widor, Felix Mendelssohn and their crew. Think burst of harsh noise, long drawn out tones, atonal blasts and the gentle gentle drones of soft reeds. Think thunderous recitals on colossal instruments in ancient cathedrals. And I love Hymns and Spheres, Jarrett's album of improvised organ music which was recorded in 1976 on the mighty Trinity Organ at the Benedictine Abbey in Ottobeuren, Germany.

TheGline.com disc-of-the-week review:

Those familiar with Jarrett through the warmth and intimacy of his piano improvisations will be shocked at how positively alien this record sounds, not only because of Jarrett’s atypical playing but the sound of the organ itself. It brings to mind Tangerine Dream’s very early Virgin-era records, which consisted not only of electronic instruments but conventional ones that had been heavily processed with studio effects and tape manipulations.

(According to the original album liner notes: "No overdubs, technical ornamentations or additions were utilized, only the pure sound of the organ in the abbey is heard. Many of the unique effects, although never before used, were accomplished by pulling certain stops part way, while others remain completely open or closed. Amazingly, baroque organs have always had this capability.")



And an Amazon.com review:

..the album contains some of the most transcendent music Keith Jarrett has recorded..

The album is a unique diversion from his earlier works and Jarrett paints an evocative, sad, and poignant landscape of sound (both beautifully harmonic and wonderfully dissonant). Sadly though, the full original release of the album is not available, for bookending the Spheres portion of the album is the Hymn of Rememberance, and the Hymn of Release, two glorious blast of spiritual bliss:

Keith Jarrett - Hymn of release (3.85 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

That is, not available on CD. But after reading on Jani's podcast note that "ECM is still selling the double-lp at their web shop" I spent approximately 1 minute and 20 mouse-clicks locating the album, and purchasing it. One week, 27 Euros (incl. the somewhat-steep but not-unacceptable 10 Euro shipping) later, and like the birth of a precious child, to my hands was delivered one copy of the original 1976 pressing of the double LP -- all the way from the other side of the world.

They're still selling copies of the original 1976 pressing of Hymns and Spheres.

This is unprecedented.

Like I said, I love the internet.


UPDATE

What the divine Ms. K said to me, upon arriving home the other night as I was blasting Hymns and Spheres through the whole house:

"Why are you listening to funeral music, hon?"

Love that gal.