The pianist’s ECM debut, marking ten years of music-making in Norway; with double-bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen.
‘There is an ascetic rigour in her playing, as well as a sense of space suggesting affinities with Japanese classical music. Ayumi views the trio as “more like a chamber ensemble. We share a flow of energy, even in silence.”’

‘I pushed myself to write songs and dances uninfluenced by the sophistication of contemporary musical languages, pieces that might have been played on archaic instruments a thousand years ago.’

The fourth Snakeoil; the second (following on from 2015’s You’ve Been Watching Me) to feature a quintet line-up adding guitarist Ryan Ferreira to the core lineup of clarinettist Oscar Noriega, pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith.
Reviews seem unanimous that it’s the best yet.
‘Characteristically action-packed in the Berne tradition (following on from AACM and his muse Julius Hemphill): powerful, dynamic, often fast-moving — yet also very clear in all its teeming detail. “We somehow achieved more sonic space by adding another player,” says Berne. It’s an impression maintained even when producer David Torn takes up his own guitar in a cameo at the climax of the modestly-titled Sideshow (in reality a 26-minute epic journey), soloing amid thunderous timpani, over a serpentine melody outlined by sax and clarinet.’

Piano / cello duets.

Scene-shifting 1967 recordings of three compositions by Annette Peacock. “Critics introduced new terms, describing this music as sparse, understated, minimal, radically lyrical,” she remembers.

With Barbaros Erkose, clarinet; Lassad Hosni, bendir, darbouka.

From 1990 — a trio with oud, violin and percussion.

Ravishing, chilled interplay between oud, piano and accordion.

John Surman, bass clarinet and soprano saxophone; Dave Holland, double-bass.

Crafted, swinging, soulful Middle Eastern jazz, led by oud and bass clarinet. Dedicated to the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. (Why he didn’t win the Nobel Prize isn’t a mystery.)

A hypnotic, at times starkly dramatic meditation on the Arab Spring by the wonderful Tunisian oud player. Persistently framed by shimmering, glowing strings, the quartet marks the return of pianist Francois Couturier — from Le Pas Du Chat — alongside Klaus Gering on bass clarinet, and bassist Bjorn Meyer.

The master oudist with Jack DeJohnette, Django Bates and Dave Holland.
‘Not only one of the year’s best ECM releases; it’s a classic-in-the-making that should ultimately be considered one of the label’s very best recordings in its nearly fifty-year history’ (All About Jazz).